MPC, 9th March 2003.Genesis 1:1-2:3 "The King and His Creation"
Doug Wannenburgh MPC, 9th March 2003.
I'm an art lover. You'll seldom find my feet walking past an art exhibition. So it was with Sydney's... Museum of Contemporary Art. Though, on this occasion, I wished my feet had just kept on going. The so-called "art" was on a par with the scribbles of my 5 year old niece. Not even. My niece is able to explain her scribbles to me. The contemporary "art" was simply... absurd, arbitrary and accidental. Without order and purpose.
London's Tate Modern Art Gallery in 2001 awarded Martin Creed the prestigious Turner Prize along with a bundle of money. What did he win for? An exhibit entitled "227: The lights going on and off". It consisted of an empty room with ceiling lights flashing on and off at 5 second intervals. He beat off stiff competition mind you. A homemade video of a man lying in bed, a dusty corridor scattered with bits and pieces, and a pickled cow.
They interviewed Martin on TV. Asked him: "Explain the meaning behind this?" His answer... "Basically, all I can tell you is that it is an empty room with lights that go on and off." Then added; "I think people can make of it what they like. I don't think it is for me to explain it."
Absurd! Arbitrary! Accidental! Without order or purpose. Left to us to make of it what we like.
That's contemporary art for you, and that's contemporary life as well. Modern art mirrors modern life. It's as if life is a big piece of art - and for many life appears absurd, arbitrary, and accidental. Without order and purpose. Left to us to make of it what we like.
Genesis is God's story of His own work of art - creation. How it came to be? And what it's all for? Unlike Martin Creed, God explains what He has made.
There were other early stories of creation which put man in the director's chair, and portrays God as merely an evolved being, limited in power, and left on the sidelines.
In stark contrast, the Bible's story opens with the words; "In the beginning... God." God's in the director's chair - He calls the shots. He's the Divine Artist - the Designer of the design. The Creator of the creation. The maker of the world.
William Steig is the author of a kids picture book entitled "Yellow and Pink". In it, two wooden puppets wake up to find themselves lying on old newspaper in the hot sun. Freshly painted, one puppet is yellow. The other, pink.
Well, Yellow and Pink sit up suddenly. Yellow asks; "Do you know what we're doing here?" Pink answers. "No!... I don't even remember getting here."
And so begins a debate between these two puppets over the origin of their existence.
Pink looks at their well-formed features and concludes. "Someone must have made us."
Yellow disagrees. "I say we're an accident." And he outlines how it might have happened. "A branch might have broken off a tree and fallen on a sharp rock, splitting one end of the branch into two legs. Then the wind might have sent it tumbling down a hill until it was chipped and shaped. Perhaps a flash of lightning struck in such a way as to splinter the wood into arms and fingers. Eyes might have been formed by woodpeckers boring into the wood. ...With enough time, a thousand, a million, maybe two and a half million years, lots of unusual things could happen. Why not us?"
The two puppets argue back and forth. In the end, the discussion is cut off by the appearance of a man coming out of a nearby house. He strolls over to the puppets. Picks them up. Checks their paint. "Nice and dry" he says. Then he tucks them under his arm and heads back into the house.
From under the man's arm, Yellow whispers to Pink; "Who is this guy?"
Who is this Guy? ...You see, if you leave God on the sidelines, then this world is an absurd arbitrary accident - merely a product of time + matter + chance. And there's as much chance of that as there is a tornado ripping through a scrap-yard and assembling a Boeing 747. No chance!
Who is this guy?... God. The maker of the world.
And as maker of everything, He is also master of everything.
Friends of ours, Ben and Mia, got married last year. At the wedding reception, they called on Ben to give a speech. He looked over to momentarily gaze at his beautiful bride. Stood to his feet. Raised his arm. And declared... "I feel like... the king of the world."
But he's not is he? God is the Maker and Master of the world. He, and He alone, can raise His arm and declare, "I am... the king of the world."
God is the Master. His Masterpiece? Verse 1 tells us. It's everything. The universe. Verse 1. "In the beginning, God created...the heavens and the earth."
When I was a little boy I loved building model cars. Aeroplanes. Ships. A year ago I bought myself a model motorbike. It came in a kit already manufactured. All I had to do was assemble and glue. Which wasn't that simple. Cutting. Painting. Glueing. All the little bits and pieces. It took days. Actually months. To be honest, I'm actually still not finished. But when it is, I know it's not going to be a masterpiece. No chance of it being found in any art gallery, even a contemporary one.
Yet God takes nothing, and makes everything. Heaven and earth. The Universe. And God creates everything by his word. He speaks. And creation springs into existence. He gives His Word and the world is.
And God creates everything with purpose. The very structure of this opening chapter is ordered and logical. And there's order and purpose to the way in which the world is made. In the first 3 days God forms the world. From then on He fills it. A night for the stars. Water for the fish. Sky for birds. Land for animals. A place for everything, and everything in its place.
And God declares everything good. Very good. What God makes fits with His purpose. It conforms to His ideal - it's as He wants it to be. No mistakes. No small alterations. No plastering over any mishaps. God has made everything good.
Me? I fumble around taking bits and pieces from an already manufactured kit box, and assemble a model motorbike which is anything but good. ...God takes nothing. Speaks His Word. Creates everything. And it is good.
God is the Maker and the master. The king of the world. The Ruler of everything.
Yet God delegates His authority to rule. In verse 26 the structure of the story is interrupted. The high point of creation is reached. Mankind is made.
If I announced there'd be an art exhibition by kids after this service in the hall, would you go? Guess if you're a parent - maybe one or two others. If I said it's an art exhibition by "uni" students, would you go? Again, not all of you. Now if I said it's an art exhibition by Leonardo Da Vinci, would you go? No? Still not all of you. Ok. If I announced it's an art exhibition by God, would you go? I bet you'd be out of here in a flash. You'd run all the way, throw the door open and rush inside. And there would be wall to wall mirrors all the way around the hall. You... are God's art exhibition. He made you, and me.
You turn over the little tag attached to your T-shirt, and you'll read, "Made in China." Yet if there were a tag attached to you, it'll read, "Made by God."
Yet we're not merely part of what God made. We stand apart from all else He made. We alone are made in God's image. Take a look at verse 26. We're made in the image of the King - the Ruler of the world. Who then delegates His rule to us. Verse 26. "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule... let them rule over the fish of the sea... the birds of the air... the livestock... over all the earth."
Now we're not free to rule as we please. Ours is a delegated rule. We're not the King Himself - we're His image. Dependant upon Him. Accountable to Him. So we're to rule... over all the earth... as God pleases, according to God's rule.
And as God's image we stand uniquely in relationship to Him. We are personal and relational. Just like Him. God says, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..." And so we too are relational. Made as male and female. Created to personally know God and each other - to love and be loved.
The sixth day ends. Look in chapter 2 verse 1. God sees all His made. It's very good. So we're told - verse 1 - "...the Heavens and the Earth were completed in all their vast array." The world is made. The work's done. But the story's not over. There's one final day. The seventh day.
Man is the pinnacle of creation, but the seventh day is the climax. It reveals what it's all for? The master-plan - God's purpose for His masterpiece? Why God created?
Read on with me from verse 2. "By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done."
The seventh day is a rest day. A special holy day. A blessed day.
Now God didn't rest because He was tired. He rests because all His work is finished. Complete. There is a place for everything. And everything is perfectly in place. Where God rules there is rest, and all things are blessed.
You see, the seventh day is a picture of God, the King of the world, and humanity, the people of the King, enjoying perfect rest together in a perfectly good world. God ruling over God's people in God's world. blessed and at rest.
And that's the plan - God's MASTER-PLAN.
On one holiday Marike handed me Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice". I'm not a great novel reader, but boredom got the better of me, and I thought I'd give it a go. Read the first chapter. Got hooked. Couldn't put it down until I was done. Chapter 1 captured my interest - it made me want to read on. So it would have been silly to stop. I wanted to read right on to the last page. To see how things end up.
So too with the Bible. Chapter 1 is done. We've started. We're into the book. But what comes... after the beginning? And how do things end up? What happens in the end?
The Creator made His creation for rest. But things soon went wrong. The world's not at rest. And the creatures that bear God's image are rest...less.
Instead of rest and enjoying the blessings of living under God's rule. Our lives are littered with sickness and sorrow. Hardships and heartaches. Relationships - broken or battling. The world's a dusty corrdor... scattered with the bits and pieces of our lives.
Why? One simple word. rebellion. That's rebellion against God's rule. We look away from God to gaze upon ourselves. To stand to our feet. Raise our arm in defiance. And declare... "I... am the King of the world." We run from God in an attempt to run life our own way. To run the world as we please.
But the King, will tolerate no rivals - no treason. For those who reject His authority and rule, there is judgement. The punishment of death. There's hell to pay. And in Hell, there's no rest. Only un-ending un-rest.
We are rest-less rebels.
But that's not the way the Bible ends. That's not the final chapter. God's master-plan is not on the cutting room floor. God has a plan to make it all work. A plan of rest-oration, of re-creation - a rescue plan.
As the Bible begins with the creation of the Heavens and the Earth, so it ends in Revelation chapter 21 with a new heaven and a new earth. "a whole new world" - a world where the dwelling of God is with men and He lives with them. Where they will be His people and He will be their God. Where He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. (cf. Revelation 21:1-4)
So God and His people will enjoy rest together in a perfectly good world. God ruling over God's people in God's place. blessed and at rest.
But how can this be? How may rebels, guilty of treason against the King, dwell with the King in His Heaven? How may those who deserve Hell... enjoy Heavenly rest?
...It's all because of Jesus.
Turn with me to Colossians chapter 1 verse 15. Paul's writing about Jesus. The Son of God. And Paul makes some remarkable statements. He tells us - verse 15... "[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God". Unlike us Jesus bears God's image perfectly. Want to know what God is like? Look to Jesus.
Paul continues - verse 15... "[Jesus is] the firstborn [or King] over all creation" - the King of the world - the Lord of all creation. How so? Verse 16. "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and things on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him...[as well as]... for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
The world's made by Jesus. And the world's made for Jesus. Jesus is the Maker and the Master - the King of the world.
But that's not all. Paul has some even more startling statements to make. Follow with me from verse 18.
"And [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church [...God's people]. He is the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him." And what? Verse 20. "and through Him to reconcile to Himself to all things, whether things on earth or things in Heaven [...how so?] ...by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross."
The King of the World - the one through whom, by whom, and for whom, the world was made - shed His bled on the cross, to make peace. To reconcile God and rebels.
We rebels... deserve death. The punishment of Hell. Yet King Jesus dies for our sin. He takes our place. Dies our death. So we may be forgiven - and enjoy a reconciled relationship with God. And receive eternal life - enjoying heavenly rest in God's new world.
So what's it all got to do with you and me? What difference should it make...? Everything! It should make a world of difference to the way we live.
This world is no absurd arbitrary accident. It is God's masterpeice - created with order and purpose. And we're God's image - made for relationship and rule. Yet we're rebels against the King. Trying to run life our own way. Ruling the world as we please.
Yet Jesus, the Maker and Master of the world, is also the Saviour of the world. He shed His blood to reconcile us to Himself. So the restless may find rest. Rest in Him. Rest in a blessed new Heaven and Earth. Where God rules over His people in His world.
He made the stars to shine.
He made the rolling seas.
He made the mountains high.
And He made you,
And the Lord made me.
And this is why I love Him.
For me He bled and died.
the Lord... of all creation...
became... the crucified.
The world's made by Him. For Him. Yet for the world He died. The hands that flung stars into space... to cruel nails surrendered. This is our God. The servant King. And He calls us now to follow Him?
The only sensible and acceptable response to King Jesus is joyful submission. Humbly admitting that we're not the King, and bowing before Jesus - the king of the world. And relying upon His death to be forgiven and to receive eternal Heavenly rest. And following Him in everything. Everything - our words, our actions, decisions, lifestyle, relationships, work - everything is to be brought under the rule of King Jesus. Willingly. Gladly.
We'll all stand before our Maker one day. And on that day, He'll either raise His arm against us - and as rebels who've refused to bow the knee we'll have Hell to pay.
Or... He will raise His arms to welcome us and to wipe every tear from our eye. And there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. "When He returns, the people of the Kingdom will rejoice."... For we'll be in the New Heaven and the New Earth. blessed and at rest, in the presence of the King - the King of the World. The servant King.
Amen.