Expository Sermon on Genesis 1
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 3/2/2024
©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1.
I’ve said this before, but every once in a while recently, I’ve been finding myself really puzzled and almost paralyzed over what’s happening in the world. Like most Adventists and other people who read their Bibles, I know very well that the last days will be perilous times, as Paul mentions. I know that Jesus said there will be wars and rumors of wars.
But added to these prophesied warnings, there are some other things that make this current year a potentially gloomy and discouraging one.
So what do we do about this? What can a Seventh-day Adventist Christian do in the face of what seems to be so much insanity?
That’s what I’ve been asking myself as I’ve been trying to decide on a brief sermon series for a few of the Sabbaths ahead. Because we do have a Bible that introduces us to a God who is all powerful, and who, if we stay close to Him, will bring us safely through to a happy forever.
I think we need to hear a “word from the Lord.” We need to hear God speak. And fortunately, in the Book His Holy Spirit inspired, there are several times where we hear God speaking.
So what I decided to do for the next few Sabbaths is to look at a few stories where God spoke out loud, not just to one person but to several people. In other words, these are the times when God spoke to groups, because He wanted more than just one individual to listen to, be encouraged by, and act on what He had to say.
And I’ve really been encouraged as I have been looking at the Bible passages where this happens. I think we can take great comfort in listening to the very words of God.
And Genesis 1, of course, is one of those chapters where God spoke out loud. And He wasn’t just talking to Himself. He was talking to His Son Jesus, and He was talking to the Holy Spirit. John chapter 1 says that Jesus was present and deeply involved in creation, and the first couple of Genesis verses remind us that the Holy Spirit was hovering nearby.
And of course God was also speaking to inanimate things. His voice was creating from nothing. We get hints in other parts of the Bible that angels and others were observing this creation too, because Job 38:7 poetically says that the “sons of God” shouted for joy at creation.
And I believe that what we hear God saying, out loud, to these listeners, can encourage and challenge us, right here as the third month of 2024 is just beginning.
So let’s move right into the chapter and listen for His voice. I can find four answers to the question, “When God speaks, what happens?”
Genesis 1:1 – 3 NKJV: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
If you like to take down sermon notes, get ready for Sermon Point One. When God speaks, what happens?
When God speaks, His words bring light.
My parents grew up on the South Dakota prairies, and during my dad’s childhood – and the same was true for my mom – rural electrification had not yet arrived at their farmhouses. They did have radios, which were powered by batteries in boxes down in the basement, but when sunset came, it just got dark.
They had candles, of course, but what they mostly used were kerosene lanterns. Lanterns were quite a bit safer than candles, and they gave a lot of light.
I remember one time as a kid, our farmhouse power went out, and dad fumbled around in the basement and brought up an old kerosene lantern. I had never seen one in operation before this, never needed to because we did have electricity. I remember him turning the little knob which advanced the wick, and lighting that wick, and the flame gradually getting bigger and bigger. It was a beautiful bright orange flame, and as we sat around the table watching it, we realized that the room was now quite light.
And that’s what God did with His voice. According to Creation week’s timetable, the sun wouldn’t be created until Wednesday. But God wanted light on day one, so He spoke light into existence. He said, “Let light happen,” and light happened.
In the Hebrew, it just takes two Hebrew words for God to say “Let there be light,” and two more Hebrew words to say “And there was light.” It’s like God says, “Light,” and snapped His fingers, and light blinked on. No long laboratory experiments, no Thomas-Edison like failed attempts, no light bulbs even. Just light, instantly.
Have you ever wondered why God felt He needed to turn the light switch on? He could have created, and spoken, and formed things in absolute blackness. But God wanted light. So He said so.
Why was light so important to Him? You’d have to ask Him to get a detailed answer, but every living thing He created in the world’s Week One needs light. Plants need light. Light helps animals and birds and human beings see each other, and move around without bumping into anything.
And light shows what reality is. Lying in my bedroom in the South Dakota farm house I grew up in, you never really had a silent night. Sometimes the house creaked, cooling off after a hot summer’s day. Outside in the pasture were rustling sounds, thumping sounds, sounds that my young imaginative mind could change into menacing monsters coming to get me.
But if I got a little panicky, I could always reach out my hand and turn the switch on my bedside lamp. And this bright light flooding the room proved to me that I didn’t need to be afraid. Because the shadows had vanished.
As I say, the Bible often uses light as a symbol of heavenly things. Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.” In other words, Bible truth shines so brightly that it spotlights what is true, and exposes what isn’t.
In John 8:12, Jesus called Himself the “light of the world.” And in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5:13, He says to His listeners, “You are the light of the world.” A couple of verses later He tells us what this means. Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
So, what is the light we are supposed to let shine? Partly, it’s our “good works,” our good deeds, our selfless actions. And when people discover how really, truly unselfish the Holy Spirit has taught us to be , how self-sacrificing we are, this gives God a good, glorify-able reputation.
Now let’s find out what else God speaks aloud here in Genesis 1. To me, these next verses are quite puzzling.
Verses 6 – 8: Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
Here comes Sermon Point Two. What happens when God speaks?
When God speaks, His words bring light. But sometimes, when God speaks, His words might confuse.
So what’s good about that? What kind of “light” do God’s words bring if they are confusing? I say this because I have never been able to figure out what these verses are saying about the firmament, and what the firmament even is.
Last night I even dug up several recent Adventist commentaries on Genesis, and hunted through them to see if I could get a get a clear picture of what’s going on. But nobody had one. In this case, when God spoke what He did about the firmament dividing the waters above from the waters below, He was not being clear—to us in 2024 at least.
Is it good or bad that God sometimes speaks in a confusing way? I think it’s a good thing. Let me tell you why I think that way. When I’m talking with someone here at church and I discover they have a job that deals with computers or some other complicated machinery, if I get a chance, I ask them, “So, when you get to work Monday morning, what do you do?”
Usually, if it is someone who works with computers, or programming, or coding or that kind of thing, I notice that their eyes shift thoughtfully away from mine and develop an intent stare. These folks know that I have asked them a question, but they also know that I’m hoping for an answer that is simple and straightforward. And people who work with technology like that understand that it is not possible for them to quickly and fully describe in layman’s terms what’s going on. They know that a whole lot of groundwork-understanding would need to be laid, and if they actually started laying that groundwork, they fear that my eyes would probably start to glaze over in panicky ignorance.
So when I look at these “firmament” verses, I dare not try to dumb them down so they’re easy to understand. I simply need to humbly realize that I don’t know the whole story. I have a piece of glass in my pocket, and you have a piece of glass in your purse or pocket too. This piece of glass is dark right now, but you can make it shine and you can make pictures appear on that glass and you can make little voices speak from under the screen of this glass. You can touch this glass with your finger and it will change.
This is no big deal with you. But if you were able to go back in time, and talk to George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, and tell them that in 2024 you own such a piece of glass, they might stare suspiciously as you and say, “How could this possibly be true?”
You know this is true. This piece of glass does speak. It really can show moving pictures, and communicate with people all over the world. But again, to explain this you would need to lay a lot of groundwork.
Again, when God speaks, sometimes what He says might be confusing. And that’s okay. Because if God’s creation and plans were always uncomplicated enough to explain to a vague, woolly-minded former English major, then we are in real trouble. I am glad that the dentist who filled three tiny cavities in my teeth a couple of days ago, I’m glad that she did not ask for my detailed advice on how to do this. She’s the expert, not me.
And when it comes to communicating, God is the expert.
But we do need to take responsibility for trying to understand what He means. The firmament is really no big deal. I don’t see the firmament as a salvation issue at all.
But there have been other times in the Bible when God was misunderstood. And chillingly, some of those misunderstandings happened because the people God was speaking to had decided they didn’t want to understand. One of the most frightening examples of this is in Acts 7, which tells how an early Christian deacon named Stephen was testifying about Jesus in front of an angry group of people.
Finally, Acts 7:57 says that the people listening to him covered their ears, plugged their ears, and bent down to pick up stones and kill him.
So when you and I come across Bible statements that don’t immediately seem clear, we need to humble ourselves, keep our ears open, and try to find answers in Scripture. And we need to remember that if God thinks an issue is important, He will make it clear in the Bible. We just need to search our Bibles to find out.
So as 2024 winds its way under our feet, let’s never stray far from our Bibles. Because that is where we will hear God speaking. And what He says can steady us, and guide us, through the uncertainties ahead.
Now let’s look at what I think are some really heart-lifting verses, really encouraging ones. I think I’ve often taken these familiar verses so much for granted that I forget how differently God could have decided to work. Watch this.
Verses 9 – 13: Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.
Here comes Sermon Point Three:
When God speaks, His words bring light. Sometimes, when God speaks, His words might confuse. But here, when God speaks, His words nourish.
I mean, literally. God tells the earth to bring forth grass, and it brings forth grass. And He tells this bright new greenery to make sure it has seeds in itself so that those seeds can fall to the earth, and grow up into more nourishing greenery.
These were not artificial plants God was creating. They were decorative, for sure, but they were also alive and could reproduce themselves.
And when you come to think of it, God could have created animals and humans not to need food. He could’ve created us to operate on solar power. But if that’s the way He had chosen to do it, I would’ve grown up as a farm kid without ever having tasted my favorite dish back then, my mom’s mushrooms and noodles.
I understand nowadays that the ingredients in Mom’s mushrooms and noodles were not the most nutritious. The way she made it was simple – she boiled a lot of wide egg noodles, and then at the psychological moment she opened a can of Campbell’s mushroom soup, and poured the soup into the noodles, and stirred it. Then when she brought this glorious mixture to me at the table, I had a stick of butter all ready to go, and I would carve slabs of this into the noodles and stir them around with my fork until they melted. And I would liberally sprinkle Jane’s Crazy Mixed-up Salt on it, and then I would eat it up.
So don’t make me mushrooms and noodles the way mom made them. It would be really unhealthy. But I loved them as a kid. I’m so glad little solar panels in my scalp were not what was keeping me powered. And by the way, I’m glad we have potluck today! Please stay for that.
When God speaks, His words nourish. Jesus was quoting the Old Testament when He said, in Matthew 4:4, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
In Job 23:12, this tragically-persecuted man said of God, “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.”
And Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of God, went further. In John 6:51 He said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
Now that is true nourishment. So during the week ahead, whenever you eat food, remember who it was who spoke this nourishment into existence. Remember who created your taste buds, and who gave some people the ability to work magic with a potluck dish. And remember that this God who nourishes is the one who can strengthen us for the year ahead.
And don’t forget to thank Him.
Let’s look at just one more thing which happens when God speaks. Let’s start down at verse 20.
Verses 20 – 28: Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, 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. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
What else happens when God speaks?
When God speaks, His words bring light. When God speaks, His words can sometimes confuse (but that’s because He’s smarter than we are). When God speaks, His words nourish. And when God speaks, He calls us to super-care.
What am I talking about? What does it mean to “super-care”? Well, ordinary caring might be collecting your kids at the end of today’s service and shepherding them up to potluck, and then driving home and launching yourself into next week. That’s caring, it’s something we all do, and we all need to do.
But super-caring is something above and beyond. Every family learn sooner or later that there are times when you need to care beyond just your own personal life. In recent weeks you’ve been hearing about something called Jubilee Reach. It’s a program that happens about a half mile south of here every Sabbath afternoon, teaming up with another Adventist church. And some of our Bellevue members have signed on to help distribute food to the homeless who come to the Jubilee Reach center. That’s called super-caring.
If you are a Sabbath school leader or assistant in our children’s’ divisions, that is super-caring. You are sacrificing time which you could spend in an adult Sabbath school class, or just staying home and getting some extra rest. But you are a super-carer, and you spend time with the kids, guiding them toward the happy meadows of heaven.
And I could go on and on. The faithful team of community services/clothing bank staff are super-carers. Somehow they are able, week after week, to minister to the needy folks who come, and still retain the courage to do it a week later.
As I say, I could simply go through every name on our nominating committee report, which is filled with super-carers. And as you know, there are people whose names never show up on the nominating report–but anonymously they’re always doing super-caring things.
This morning I brought in my billfold my tithe-offering envelope. Maybe you did too. The Bible’s tithe and offering plan is God’s monthly seminar in the art of super-caring.
God says, “Look. I know you’ve got bills. I know you have job uncertainty, or health issues, or any other kind of challenge. I know how easy it is for crises to loom up in front of you and start to drain your resources. But still,” He says, “I challenge you to be a super-carer. Don’t rob me in tithes or offerings. Bring the tithes into the storehouse where I can put it to work, and as you do that, you will start to become the kind of generous super-carer who will be happiest in the New Earth.”
Here in Genesis 1, of course, our super-caring God is talking about is caring for nature. Animals and birds are afraid of us now because of sin, but back in Eden, it was probably a common sight to see clouds of birds fluttering around Adam and Eve, and elephants trumpeting in delight to see them approach.
God speaks – and He loves to have us speak as well, about His love and how heart-touchingly He shows it.
And He loves to hear us sing, too. So in closing, let’s sing a familiar song about the joy of His Creation.
All Things Bright and Beautiful — #93