52 Major Stories of the Bible - Lesson 2

 

[00:00:00] Well, last time we were together, we looked at the first five days of creation and we asked the question of what do they tell us about God? And what I want to do today is to look at the sixth day of creation and ask the question, What is creation? Tell us about ourselves in day six. There are two great creative acts, just like there was in day three. And the first act of creation is that God creates the animals, and the purpose of the animals is to inhabit the earth. So in Genesis one, starting in verse 24, we read and God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was soul. And God made the beasts of the years according to their kinds in the livestock, according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. You can see the same three themes that we looked at last week going through this day of creation as well can show you the themes that God and God alone possesses, the ability and the wisdom to create that God creates purposely, intentionally, meaningfully. And then when God creates you, creates good. You see those same three themes going through the creation of animals. And then we get to the second great creative act of the sixth day. And this is the creation of human beings. And just the translator's note up front, the word translated man is the Hebrew Adam. And Adam is a generic word. What that means is that you can refer to it in the singular, referring to all people, or you can refer to Adam as in the plural, thinking of men and women. 

 

[00:01:53] And then to make it even a little more complicated in chapter two, where Moses spells out the detailed creation of human beings, Adam becomes a personal name, doesn't it? And so, anyway, Adam is a generic word, and you can refer to it in both singular and plural. And that explains some of the weird gyrations going on in this text. Verse 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. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them. And God bless them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So we have the creation of Adam and Eve. Moses then goes on to conclude this part of the story by talking about how God provides for His creation. First 29 and God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life. I have given every green plant for food. And it was so interesting, isn't it? We were all created to be vegetarians. 

 

[00:03:39] Meat wasn't given us till after the flood and Genesis Chapter nine. And it's kind of an interesting indication of how far we've come from God's created intention. Evidently, the lions and the bears, the lions and the tigers, as well as the bears, were all vegetarian at the beginning. But that's just a theory. We'll get to that next. And then Moses concludes with almost a benediction, he says, and God saw everything that he had made. And behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. The theme of the six Day of Creation is very straightforward is that people are the apex of God's creation. They are the climax. We are the climax of God's creative energies. And if you look at Genesis one, almost from a literary standpoint and you read through the chapter, you can feel a literary crescendo building getting up to six as you go from day one, today, two and so forth. The descriptions of each day get longer and there's a literary pattern that's established. Words like Let there be and it was soul according to its kind. Good. There's a rhythm. There's a pattern. Two days, one through five. And all of this is pushing towards day six. And when it gets the day six, everything comes to a grinding halt. There's a a literary stop to the pattern, to the rhythm that Moses has been creating and the familiar let there be becomes let us make. And instead of creation reproducing according to their kind, we have Adam and Eve being created in our image. And instead of just filling the earth, we are told to not only fill the Earth, but to subdue the Earth, to rule the Earth, to have a dominion over the sphere as well as rule over the animals and the plants that God had created. 

 

[00:05:57] It's this powerful crescendo moving towards day six, and then all the change happen in these six to tell us from a just a literary standpoint, if not theological, that we've now hit the climax of the actual creating process. That's the theme of day six that you and I are the apex, the center point, the focal point of God's creation. You and I are not some Darwinian mistake. You and I did not make it to the, quote, top of the evolutionary ladder because we have opposing sums in the ability to think abstractly. That's not who we are. It's not why we're here. I am the crowning point of God's creation. Not a mistake. I am the apex of what God intended. Why? Because an omniscient, all powerful God said, Let us make man. Let us make people in our image. God wanted to create something that was more like himself. Then the birds were like him. He wanted to create something that was more like himself than the fish. And so he made me. And he made you. And he made us in his image. And if that is a melt your butter, I don't know what will. We are the crowning achievement of God's creation. One of the interesting questions that comes out of this passage is who is the plural? US. Who is our image? And then how come in verse 27 it can shift back to the singular and talk about his own image? What's what's going on with the singers and the plurals? Well, we've already seen how creation emphasizes there's only one God. That's the belief of monotheism, one God. And so in verse 27, when it's singular, it makes sense. That's one of the points that's been taught to us in the first six days of creation. 

 

[00:08:23] There's only one God. And yet, in telling the story of creation at the very beginning of the book, God wants us to understand that there's more to Him than meets the eye. That in his singularity monotheism, there is some sort of plurality. Let us make man in our image. There is no biblical word for this. It's clearly taught in the text, but there's not a word for it. And the church for hundreds of years struggled with it and they finally came up with a Latin term. They made it up. It's called the Trinity. And the word trinity simply means three ness. And while we are miles to us, while we believe there's only one God, we are also Trinitarian. We believe in the Trinity. And so the church had to develop language that could handle the Trinity. And so we talk about three persons of the Godhead, knowing all along that there's one God, three persons of the Godhead. And so we talk about God, the father. And there's it's interesting to look at how the Trinity relates to itself, how the Trinity relate to one another. And there is clearly a hierarchy in the Trinity. There is submissiveness and subordination within the Trinity. Jesus tells us he came to do his father's will, not his own will. It appears that God, the Father is the one who possesses the ultimate authority. It's God, the Father who makes the formal decisions. And apparently it was God, the Father who did make the decision to create all things. But then the second member or the second person of the Godhead is God the Son and the God. The son's task, while being fully God, has the task of being the agent. He's the one who actually does the work. 

 

[00:10:23] God, the Father makes the decision. God the son accomplished. He does the work. And so when Genesis says, and God said, Let there be light, who made the light? There was Jesus. You have verses like John one three that say that God, that Jesus created all things. But you have versus to lay conclusions. Chapter one, verse 16. Speaking of Jesus, Paul writes for by Him, by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible, where the thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. So, God, the Son is the actual agent who accomplishes the task. And then thirdly, we have God, the Spirit, God, the Spirit who is hovering over the chaos in Genesis one God, the Spirit who is who is waiting to complete the work, the God the son begins ready to give life. Those appear to be his primary functions. So when you ask the question, Who's the US? Who's the our? The answer is that you and I were made. Not only in the image of God, but you and I were made in the image of the Triune God. And much of our life and our community is an expression of the fact that there is one God and yet three in perfect community with one another. That's the that's whose image we were created in. Well, what is the image? What is the image of this triune God? You may have heard the theological discussions on this topic. This is the question of the Imago day. What is the image of God? And it's interesting. The debate often centers on just one characteristic. Some people will argue, for example, that because we have intellect, that is what it means to be in God's image. 

 

[00:12:22] Some people will say, No, we have the ability to make moral choices. That's what it means to be in God's image. Others will say, No, we have creativity. That is what it means to be in God's image. But if you look at anyone else in particular, none of them really stand out as this is what separates us from all creation. So what is the image of God? I think the key to the answer is in the Hebrew word. The Hebrew word that has translated likeness is a word that specifically means similar, but not identical. That's what it means. You and I are in the likeness of God. We are similar to him, but we are not him. And therefore, I believe that the image of God is all of those qualities that together enable us to resemble God. And yet, at the same time, none of those qualities should be mistaken as us being God. So the image of God is not one particular quality. It is everything that God has given us so that we can image Him, we can resemble him. We can reflect him to creation and in a very real sense, reflect him back up to himself. Everything that helps us image or reflect him. In the context of Genesis one, I think this is very clear. Garnet God wanted something that was more like himself than were the birds and the fish. He wanted something that was more like himself. That was the vegetation and the stars. And so he made you. And he made me you know, the heavens may declare the glory of God, the skies may proclaim the work of his hands, but you and I look like him. And that's something that no majestic mountain will ever do. 

 

[00:14:26] That's something that no clear, starry night can ever do. All they can do is point us to God. But you and I, separate from all of creation, can actually look like him. We can reflect him to one another. We alone of all creation are made in the image of God. And so God gave us spiritual qualities. We are more than flesh and bones, aren't we? That we live in an awareness of God? I don't know if my dog knows there is a God, but we have that spiritual quality. We have mental qualities. Yes, we have intellect. We have reason. We can think abstractly. We have relational qualities. We are able to walk in the garden with Jesus, as Adam and Eve did in Genesis chapter two. We have moral qualities. God has put a conscience in our heart. It's not always trustworthy, but it does help us understand the difference between right and wrong. It's these things and many more that go into making up the image of God. The image of God is everything that God has put into us so that we can be like Him without ever thinking that we are him. That is the image of God. And you and I were created in the image of God. Now there's many applications that can come out of this, but I want to make two. This morning. The first application out of the six day creation is that the image of God is the source of all dignity. The fact that you and I are created in the image of God is the sole source of dignity in our life. By dignity, I mean our sense of worth, our significance, that down deep feeling that I'm somebody. Where does that come from? Where does that sense of dignity come from? And Genesis six says, it comes from God, our Creator. 

 

[00:16:41] I am who I am. You are who you are because God has infused his image into you and He has infused his image into me. That's where dignity comes from. It comes from the fact that you and I are created in the image of God. Now the world has got this so messed up is amazing how wrong the world is on this whole issue of dignity. Because what is the world saying about dignity? The world says that it can bestow dignity on people totally apart from God, but it bestows dignity on people based on performance. It bestows dignity on people based on the world's values. And so to a very few people, the world says, oh, you have dignity, you have worth. You're part of the beautiful people. And so they hold award ceremonies so mere mortals can sit back and adore them. As if they're more of more worse than I am. We have television shows of the rich and the famous. I wish they would do a television show of the meek in the humble. Because that's what matters, right? Not the opulent wasting of God's wealth. But people who understand the heart of God and respond in meekness and in humility and love their neighbors themselves and use the wealth that God has given them to advance God's purposes, no matter how meager that may be. That's greatness, isn't it? That's dignity. That's how dignity shows itself. But the world is all messed up. And it says, I bestow dignity on you and you are the beautiful people. And then the rest of you, you're worthless scum. Right. So what? The world? That's right. Why? Well, you can't run as fast. You can't jump as high. You can't tackle as hard. 

 

[00:19:01] You're not as rich and you're not very pretty. That is the world's sense of dignity, isn't it? That is something that is earned by people who hold on to the world's values are not gods. There is no dignity. Apart from God, No. Apart from God, we are dust. And we are doomed to return to dust. And our dignity lies solely in the fact that God created as He created us in his image, He created us to be very good. I think it is no mistake in God's economy that this morning, of all the ministries that could have been highlighted in this church. We highlighted a ministry that values the dignity of human beings regardless of what they have done, whether they have been born or not. That wasn't a mistake. You all. Ziegler's and the people who planned the service didn't know that connection. God did. That's why it was there. Only dignity. The only worthwhile miss in this world is the fact that you and I are created in the image of God and are put on Earth to do His task, to image Him, to reflect him to one another, and to the animals and to the planet itself, and ultimately back up to God. That's dignity. That's being worthwhile. That's being something and it's something that God has given to all people. This is who I am and this is why I am who I am. This is the meaning in my life. I am not worthwhile because of what I've been able to achieve. I'm worthwhile because God created me in his precious image. And we are all of the same worth. We are all of the same value, and we all possess the same dignity. Because God said it was so. 

 

[00:21:27] I know of a young woman who was in the process of coming out of anorexia. It was a very difficult situation. Her mom told me about it. She had been destroyed. Her self-image had been destroyed. And in a actually a church's youth group, not this one. And. She said to herself, I got to get some control of my life. I just I mean, everything's out of control. Everything is a wash. You know, if I limit myself to 1500 calories a day, you know, I can get control. And she fell into anorexia. But a year later, she was starting to come out of it, and the mom was concerned that she was going to fall back in. And they had this key meeting where the daughter said to her, mom, mom, it doesn't matter how people view me, it only matters how God views me. And then she said, God loves me for who I am. I am created in his image and therefore I am his treasure. Those are her words, not mine. So here was a young lady who understood the scope of creation, who understood that her dignity and her sense of self-worth worth was not tied up in whether the youth group liked her or not. It wasn't tied up with the fact that she could exert enough control to starve herself to death. It existed in the fact that she was created in the image of God. She was his treasure. And that was enough. That's the first application that comes out of day six. Our dignity, our sense of worth or our true sense of worth doesn't come from what we do. You know, it doesn't come from who your friends are at school. It doesn't come from where you live or what kind of car you drive or how far up the pecking order you've managed to just just scratch, claw and climb. 

 

[00:23:25] It doesn't matter who your parents are, doesn't matter who your kids are. It doesn't matter where you get A's, B's or whatever. But ultimately, at the core matters is that you are God's treasure. You are the apex of his creation. You are what he did everything for. And that's enough, isn't it? That's enough. The second application comes out of the relationship between creation and our spiritual growth, our growing up in Christ, our maturing. And what I want you to do is try to imagine a continuum. And over here at the beginning of the continuum, we're at Genesis one, and we have our creation, and we are created in God's image. Unlike all the rest of creation, we look like our Creator. We mirror him. We reflect him. Genesis three. Sin comes in the world. The image of God is never lost, but it can be mired, it can be pushed down, it can be hidden. And as we continue down the continuum, you come to the time of Christ and Jesus came to do something about the center to deal with the devastating effects of the entrance of sin into this world. And in a sense that maybe it's more illustrative than anything else, but in a sense, what he's doing on the cross is, is he's removing the mastery, the tyranny of sin, because he wants his image that is in all of us to reach his potential to to start really affecting how we look to to affect how we think, how we act, how we talk, the values that we have, all those things that are part of who we are on the cross. Jesus died to remove the power of sin so that that image of God could start showing itself again. 

 

[00:25:18] And right here is the issue of spiritual growth. This is where we are now. This is if you are a follower of Christ. We are all on a journey, aren't we? We've gone through the gate, a conversion. We're going down the path of discipleship. And what's happening is that through the power of the spirit, he keeps working on us and he keeps well, he keeps wanting to look at areas in our life. And I'm going to encourage you here. But, you know, we need to work on this area of sin in your life. Why? Because it's pressing down what is so precious in you. It is my image there. Sin is suppressing that. And we need to work on this sin. You need to stop looking like you used to look. And you need to be changed from one degree of glory to the next so that we look more and more like Jesus. That's the process of spiritual growth. The verse that I'm alluding to is in Second Corinthians chapter three, verse 18, and Paul is making a comparison between the Corinthians and Moses back in the days of the Tabernacle. And in verse 18, Paul writes this, And we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image. Which is the image of a sun transformed in the same image from one degree of glory to another. That is what spiritual growth is. It is the being changed by the power of spirit from one degree of glory to the next is being changed step by step, day by day, to look more like Jesus, to have the image that God put into each one of us start to come more to the surface and so that we can more and more reflect him to the people that are around us. 

 

[00:27:14] One of my favorite short stories is a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne is called The Great Stone Face. And very briefly, the story is a story about a people who lived in a valley and on the far side of the valley, there is a  rock wall, and some rocks were jutting out of it. And if you looked at it just right, it looks like a face against the great stone face. And there was a prophecy that had been made in this town, and that is that somebody who would be raised up in this town, who would look like the great stone faced, would become a great prophet. And so as Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story, tells the story of two people who had been born in the valley, but had left the valley and had achieved world notoriety and come back to their home. And everybody wanted to declare to them the fulfillment of the prophecy. They are the great stone face. And there is a rather quiet man in the story who eventually becomes the hero. And both times he objects. He goes, But they weren't raised in the valley. They can't be the fulfillment of the prophecy. So these two pretenders to the prophecy are dismissed and the story continues. And you find that this man has a practice, he has a habit, and what he does is he just goes out and he stares the great stone face. It's as if the stone face is teaching him. It is as if he is learning from the great stone face. And an amazing thing happens in the story that as the years go by and as he beholds the great stone face, his countenance changes and he starts to look like the great stone face. 

 

[00:28:56] And at the end of the story, the people in the Valley recognize that he is the fulfillment of the prophecy. There's one of my dad's favorite sermons. He uses this story and second Corinthians 318, and he does a little different translation, which he can do. And this is how he reads the verse, is that we all, by beholding the glory of God, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to the next. That's our spiritual growth. You are. That is where we are in the journey. We are created in the image of God. The mastery of sin has been broken. And those of us who are on the path towards heaven and he is in the process to the working of spirit, to change us, to transform us. He is making us look like Jesus is. He's peeling away the results of sin in our life. And the fact that we were stamped with the image of God is coming through more and more. And the further we travel down the journey, the more and more we look like Jesus, because we are going from one degree of glory to the next. That's what spiritual discipleship is all about. That's what spiritual growth is all about. And I know this journey is hard, isn't it? There are joys. There are joys in it. But there's a lot of pain in this, isn't there? There's a lot of sorrow. There's a lot of disappointment. There's a lot of betrayal. There's a lot of things that happen. And I know what the tendency is. I know the tendency is to say I've traveled enough. I have grown up enough. I look enough like Jesus. I'm going to stop. And I think part of the imagery of day six of creation is to help us to understand. 

 

[00:30:57] That we can't stop. Because we were stamped with the full image of God in the fabric of a very being. And spiritual growth is this desire that even in the midst of pain, because I grow better in the midst of pain, it is in the midst of pain that these layers come off these stupid, stinking, sinful layers of how I react and the patterns of their are in my life. And, and, and it's the spirit pulling that stuff off. Why? Because my worth is not coming from this world or what to achieve. And that is what I do is not really who I am. I am who God has made me to be. And that fact is too well up inside of me. And as the days go by, this is a working of the spirit who is prompting through the encouragement of  a church body of all the things that were about Bible holding the glory of God by fixing our eyes on the price, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We are being changed into His likeness, and that image is showing itself more and more. Keeping our eyes fixed on him. Being changed into the true great stone face. And on this continuum, what's at the end? What's at the very end? Jesus. Heaven. Celestial City Home. There's all the different ways that you and I can describe it. But one of the things that I'm looking forward to the most. Is the fact that someday I will look like him. Someday I'm going to look like him when all the signs are gone. And the image that he's stamped in the fabric of build mounts is being is allowed to fly. And I have changed. And I look like him. 

 

[00:33:00] One of my favorite passages in all of the Bible is first John three two. Because this is the goal that John holds out for us. John writes, Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared. I mean, there's we're still on a journey. There's still a process. We're not home yet, but we know that when he appears, when Jesus comes back to take us home, we shall be like him because we shall see him face to face. That's the end of the process. And so in a very real sense, the process that was started in the six day of creation of stamping is with the image of God made available through the work of Christ. And the cross is now starting to be realized as we walked day in and day out in our lives, knowing that someday the process will be done and we will be in heaven and we will fully look like him and we will truly have gone from one degree of glory to the next. And part of the question you have to ask yourself is, do you want this to be a jolt? Do you want this to be something you have no idea of? Or do you want to start getting ready for home? Do you want to start living in light of the realities, the realities that God has stamped us with his image and the work of the Spirit is to give us life, to peel back the patterns of sin so that we look more and more like Jesus. I know the spiritual work walk is joyous, and I know it is painful. And I know the temptation is to get off the path, but we can't get off the path because we were created in God's image. 

 

[00:34:46] And we must continue that journey until someday we look like him. May we never derive our sense of significance from what we do. Don't believe that your sense of worth comes from what you do or the world thinks of you. May we derive our significance and our dignity from the fact that we are created in God's image and as we live out our lives, may we know the greatest joy of all the joys this world has to offer, the joy of looking more and more like Jesus. And then someday we'll see Him face to face and we'll be like him. We will never be him. But we be like, you know. That's true. Father. I pray for anyone who's struggling this morning thinking that they've walked far enough down the path. And then it's this is too hard, it's too tiring, and I want to get off. Father. We can't get off the path. You put your image in us. You are calling us home. You're recalling us to behold you in all of your glory as much as we can see. And you are calling us to allow your spirit to change us. To change the patterns that change the values, to change those things that would hide your image in us. Father may we be responsive to. Your spirit's work in our life. May we allow him to peel back the layers of skin? The patterns of how we've always have done things, how we've always responded to things. May we behold you and Bible holding you. May we be changed from one degree of glory to another to look more like Jesus? In Jesus name. Amen.