Creation

Pastor Jacob talks about the Creation event. Was it 6 literal days? How long ago did it happen? Does it matter what we believe about it? From 9/27/2020

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Today is Sunday September 27th

And today, we will be talking about the Creation Week

Before we get into all that, lets get a few announcements out of the way first.

NEXT Sunday is COMMUNION, and because of the quarantine, were asking you to bring your own bread and wine.

So next week, Communion.

Our Free Community Dinner last night went good, we handed out 50 free dinners to Community Members and showed them the love of God.

We do have some leftover Mac Salad in the kitchen, so if you want it, it’s yours.

The next one will be towards the end of November, and we're thinking Chili and Cornbread….and we’ll keep everyone updated on that.

Were looking for anyone that wants to volunteer to help out with the Sunday School kids once a month, you'll get to sip the Sermon, and watch cartoons and eat snack with them, so its a pretty good gig.

If you're thinking that might be something you want to do, theres a sign up clipboard in the back

Sunday School is starting back up, so if your 6th grade or up, you can go downstairs with Mrs. Jen

Or 6th and under you can go out to the Community Center with Mrs. Sarah

Creation.

The creation week.

The 6 days that God created everything, and the 7th day when He rested.

Now this topic is big.

Like literally…..were going to talk about outer space and stuff

Its a big topic

But it’s not for everyone

Some people may hear this topic, and just check out.

I hope thats not you

You see, God including this in Scripture, because He wants us to know it to study it, to understand it

So lets expand our brains a little bit….and explore what Scripture says.

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Now sometimes when you hear Christians talk about Creation…..it turns into an argument about why evolution and the big bang are stupid. Which they are…..but we wont be getting into that today.

So….if you heard the word creation, and immediately thought that I was going to talk about the ludicrous idea of having fish for ancestors…..then I am going to let you down.

But...if you heard the word “Creation” and thought:

“Awesome. The glorious might of God on full display, lets do this thing”

Then you'll be a little closer to our message today.

Genesis 1:1

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

( → → Opening Prayer ← ← )

So, Creation.

Were going to start with the days….what happened on each of them, and then we’ll get into some deeper stuff…..and then close it all up with how this is relatable and able to be applied to us.

Day 1

Light, the heavens and the earth

Light is self explanatory - before this day, light as we know it, natural light, didnt exist.

The heavens and the earth - means dark matter or outer space, and matter, the stuff that everything is made of

All the atoms

All the elements on the periodic table

All the molecules

All the protons and neutrons and electrons

All the carbon, oxygen, hydrogen

Light, dark matter and matter ------ were all made by God on the first day of reality

And if we dig deep enough into the original language, we can see that word used to describe God separating the light and dark, the day and night, means “rotating away” which means, that this moment- this day- is when time began.

Day 2

The Atmosphere/Ozone

God collected and ordered all the elements and atoms that He created on the first day, and use them to create the ozone layer, the atmosphere. In genesis it’s called the firmament

On day two of reality, God made the atmosphere, meaning this is when He also created water molecules

He bonded together the hydrogen and oxygen that He created on the first day, and created water

He did this on day 2, because of what He is going to do on day 3

Day 3

Land and all plants

God collected and organized all the matter and elements and atoms that He already created…...and formed them into land. Dirt.

All the stuff of what the earth would be composed of, was floating around in microscopic nebulous clouds of matter and vapor, and God supernaturally organized it all, bonded elements together, and created the planet.

Then, He organized it into land and seas

Not only did He create the land on this day, but He also created all of the plants

Trees, vines, fungus, flowers, seaweed, algae, bushes, fruit, vegetables, berries, leaves-----humongous primordial trees, mega flora that absorbed the light He already created, and generated oxygen by billions of billions of cubic feet

The earth itself, The massive sprawling carpets of forest and jungle that, and the immense blue oceans that embrace our planet, were all made in a single day by God.

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So by day 3, we have the all the fundamental elements of reality that He already made on DAY ONE, then on

DAY TWO God organizes those that He needs to create water and vapor and molds it into an atmosphere with no planet yet inside the sphere of ozone that He created, then on

DAY THREE, He uses all the matter that is within that atmosphere, bonds all the atoms and elements together, creates a planet, and then brings forth the first life forms...plants

Are you staying with me?

Day 4

All the stars, including the sun and moon

So we have the planet, it has its own atmosphere, it has oceans, and it has plant life.

Then God creates every single star in the entire universe, our Sun, and our Moon.

Every swirling galaxy, comprised of billions of stars----

Every single solar system….some with suns that are thousands of times the size as ours----

Every constellation---

Every gas cloud----quark----neutron star-----black hole----every pillar of space dust

God supernaturally manipulated all the dark matter and matter that He created on day one...that was hanging out outside of our atmosphere….and bonded together all of the components necessary to create all the celestial bodies that populate our universe.

Day 5

All life that lives in water and all life that flies

So we have our planet---

We have light---

We have plants---

We have the ocean---

We have stars and moons and constellations and solar systems---

Then on DAY 5, God creates everything that flies and everything that swims.

All ocean life, from plankton to blue whales----

From eels to megalodons----

Everything that lives at the bottom of the Mariana trench, to everything that lives in the erie canal

And all life that flies

From mosquitoes to eagles----

From sparrows to pterodactyls----

If it lives in the water, or if it flies, it was created by God on DAY 5

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Day 6 the last day of Creation ----- are you still with me?

All the creatures that live on land, and Adam and Eve

From cocker spaniels to elephants----

Weasels to gorillas----

If it lives on land, that means that on the 6th day of reality, God manipulated all the fundamental elements of reality and created everything that lives on land.

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You see, everything that God did here, in these 6 days…...is create a self propagating system.

He organized everything that He created into a system that could support itself, and reproduce, and grow and benefit everything else.

Everything needed for life to exists, was put in place

Everything needed for life to continue to exist…..was put in place

Everything needed for that life to reproduce and grow and change and adapt to its environment…...was put in place

God didnt create a rigid unmoving system when He created the universe.

He created a moving, living, reproducing, self sustaining ecosystem.

And He did it that way, from the immensity of the cosmos, to the intricacy of the inside of a cell…..He left His divine signature, like an artist signing their work of art, across every surface of reality…...to be of benefit for what else He created on DAY 6 apart from land animals.

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Not only did God create land animals on DAY 6…..He created us.

Adam and Eve

Real, literal, historic people who walked the earth, talked, ate, and reproduced.

They arent poetic devices to mean “humanity as a whole”----and we know this because Romans 5 talks about the historicity of Adam as an actual real life, flesh and blood and bone human

Genesis 1:26-27

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

Out of everything in all of creation, massive super giant planets that are so big, if you were to look at them you wouldnt be able to see anything but them……

Black holes that can absorb and destroy those planets------

Life forms that can survive nuclear radiation------

Life forms that can sleep for half a year, or slow their metabolism down to almost nothing----

Out of everything in Creation….He created US in His image.

That is because of what it says in:

Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago

We are God’s masterpiece----

We are the pinnacle of everything that has ever been created-----

Nothing else in all of reality is made in the image of God.

And nothing else in all of reality can claim the blood of Jesus Christ when they stand before the judge of the universe.

Jesus didnt die for german shepherds

Jesus didnt die for antelopes

Jesus didnt die for tulips, tortoises, or tyrannosaurus'

Jesus died for humans, because we are made in the image of God, and our life has value beyond anything anything else in our universe.

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Day 7

God rests

God created everything, saw that it was good, and rested.

God didnt make the world filled with evil, darkness and sin, we did that.

The creation was good, and God rested

We could preach an entire Sermon Series about the concept of rest and why its importnat and how God modeled it for us, and that its beyond just taking a break, because thats what the sabbath it----

But thats another day

On the 7th day of creation, God rested.

Not becuase He was tired and worn out from manipulating the elemental fabric of reality, but to model to us the importance of taking a sabbath

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So there you have it.

All of your questions have been answered.

God made everything in 6 days, and on the 7th He rested.

You shouldnt have any more questions, ever again, for the rest of your life, about any of this, ever again, forever.

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You see, while the Bible does give us an accurate account for almost everything involved in Creation, there a few areas that God left vague.

Not entirely vague----

Not shrouded in mystery----

But He did leave a little wiggle room, when it comes to what we can believe while still saying it’s a Biblical truth.

2 of those areas, in regards to Creation, that we have a little wiggle room, are:

6 literal days?

How long ago did it all take place?

First:

Were the time periods that I have been referring to, 6 literal, 24hr, sunrise to sunrise, 1 full rotation of the Earth on its axis, time periods?

One of the ways we can figure this out, is to look at the language that it was written in, now because this is in the Old Testament, we can look at the Hebrew, and see that the word Moses used to describe these periods of time…..means “from sunset to sunset”

Some people will argue that these 6 days-----are 6 periods of time

Theyll say that it’s impossible for God to create everything in 6 days----

Theyll say that the prose and writing style of Genesis indiciates that these days couldnt be taken literally-------

But only response is------what does the Bible say?

Do we bend and warp Scripture to make it make sense to us?

If we do, why stop at Creation?

Why not ask if Jesus is really God based on the writing style?

Or other people will say:

--the science that we have available to us shows us that if we look at all the leftover stuff from the beginning of the universe it means that there was nothing…..and then that nothing exploded….for no reason….and then out of that explosion of nothingness…..everything came together….for no reason

But right in Scripture, we have the word for a 24hr time period, when talking about God creating everything-----

Do we bend Scripture to appease unbelievers?

Do we interpret it as poetic and allegorical?

Do we try and expand beyond what Scripture teaches?

Or do we stand with what the Bible says, and what the Church has taught for thousands of years?

2ND is….how long ago did all this happen?

This is a big one.

How old is the universe?

How old is the earth?

How old is humanity?

If it was 6 literal, 24hr time periods…..how long ago did that happen?

Do we have fool-proof-------argument proof------evidence-------in Scripture----- that we can look at to claim that the Creation week happened this many years ago and not that many years ago?

Should we take fallen human sciences that have proven their inadequacy for thousands of years? And combine them with what Scripture teaches, to come to a conclusion?

Or should we walk the thin line of what Scripture teaches and use that as our rock solid foundation?

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Now a lot of Christians will say that if we read all the geneologies in Scripture, and look at how old people were when they died, we can count backwards and come to a conclusion that the Genesis account happened anywhere from 8-15thousand years ago.

A lot of people stand on that number, very firmly.

So firmly, that they question the salvation of anyone who disagrees with them

Other Christians will say that the language used in the Genesis account can accommodate a time period of “ages” when the author used the word “day”

Theyll make their claims and say that people who claim the earth is young, or people who claim 6 literal days, are doing damage to the faith and pushing non believers away

Sooooo……. Whats true?

Whats the right thing to think and believe?

At the very least….where does our Church stand on this issue?

What does Christ Community Church in Clyde, NY have to say about the time it took God to create everything….and how long ago did He do it all?

Well...if you have another 2hrs we can really get into this-------

Anyone want to stick around for another 2hrs?

If not….then Ill just cover it really quickly ….before moving on to why this all matters anyways.

If we can agree that the ages of people in Scripture, and the records of their ancestry, will lead us backwards in time to the Creation week happening about 10thousand years ago-----then that leads to 2 questions

#1) How long were Adam and Eve in the Garden before they fell?

Was it 2 weeks?

2 years?

2 decades?

2 centuries?

2 millenniums?

The Bible doesnt say.

The Bible doesnt say…...so we cant say.

If the Bible is silent about a subject, we have to be silent as well.

We cant make the claim that Adam and Eve were in the garden for a day….anymore than we can make the claim that they were in there for a billion years.

We dont know

And #2)

Romans 8:22 says that all of creation has been corrupted because of sin….and we know that time didn't exist before creation…

Which means that time was created-----

Which means that time itself has been corrupted-----

This means that time passed by differently prior to Adam and Eve eating the apple

When sin came into the world, ------everything that was created…..everything I listed in all of those 6 days at the beginning of this Sermon…...was corrupted and effected by sin.

And if we already agree that we dont know how long they were in the Garden for-------and then couple that with the truth that time has been effected by sin…..then we cannot make a claim about the age of the universe, the earth, or humanity.

The Bible doesnt tell us how old everything is, but it does give us several reasons to believe that it is outside of our ability to know.

We dont know how old it all is, and we CANT know how old it all is----------

But…..this doesnt easily fit into one of the Christian camps that already exists----

This isnt a nice and neat packaged little belief system-----

But it is what the Bible teaches.

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So yes, everything that is, was created over the span of 6 literal days------

And no, we dont know how long ago it happened, because:

We dont know how long adam and eve were in the garden

And because time was effected by sin

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So why does this matter?

and

Why should we care?

Should we divide ourselves from other Christians who love and worship Jesus along side us across the globe every Sunday?

Should we draw such harsh lines in the sand that we are questioning if someone even really is a Christian at all?

Or should we all agree that God created everything, that Jesus Christ is God, and that it was His death and resurrection that opened the door for all who believe to be forgiven of their sins and made anew?

Because that is what matters.

God made everything-----

How did He do it?

He’s God. Thats something that He can do

“No one gets past the first verse of the Bible without facing the test of submission to Scripture. It isn’t unclear; it isn’t foggy; it isn’t oblique; it isn’t obscure. It is crystal clear. So you never get past the first verse without declaring your submission to Scripture, or lack of it.” - (John MacArthur)

God is bigger than everything in all of reality, and if we accept that, and look to Him then we can make sense of the Creation week by reading the words of

Romans 1:20

“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.”

God made the universe-----

God made the periodic table of elements----

God made the Earth----

God made humanity-----

To prove to everyone who would ask, that He exists.

Like a master painter leaving His signature on that which He created-----

God fashioned the massive sprawling universe

And the nano-scopic cells of it

To prove that He was real----

To give people a reason to believe----

To show his love----

To show His glory----

To show us that this world is not all there is----

That there is more----

To show us that we can rise above the garbage that surrounds us----

We can rise above division----

We can rise about broken families

Broken homes

Broken hearts

You see….when we pray to Him, for these things in our life that hurt us-----

When we call out in tears---

When we call out in pain---

When the weight of this world on our shoulders is more than we can bear and we cry out to Him for some kind of sign-----

We arent crying out to some helpless imaginary god

We arent crying out to someone fake or pretend

Or someone whose so weak he needs us to do things------

We are crying out to the God who created the heavens and the earth

“Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord….the maker of heaven and earth”

He has all might, all power, all strength-----

And the signs you need to see Him through all the waves of pain in your life-----dot the night sky, and illuminate the day sky

God made the universe and all that is in it, to let us know that there is more to this world that we can see and touch and know

And that He wants us to know Him

( → → Closing prayer ← ← )