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South Bay SDA Church

Genesis

Jeremy Arnall

02 Day 2 of Creation: Under Heaven’s Quilt

01 The Creation Account: Let There Be Light

Have you ever watched as light filters through the trees?

It's almost like nature as you watch the light sort of dancing around on the forest floor.

It's almost as though it's playing a game by itself as it daringly appears from behind the canopy of branches and leaves above.

As it swoops down beneath the towering trees, it silently drifts across the forest floor in an artistic dance of sorts.

Almost daily, the light puts on a delightful show before an audience of birds and squirrels and rabbits and other animal life.

But as the day wears on, this dramatic dance comes to an end with a climatic conclusion as the curtain of darkness slowly descends.

Like children who peek behind the curtain at a school play, rays of light struggle to take 1 last bow as the light drifts from the stage.

You see, light is intriguing because of its elusive nature.

Without light we would never be able to behold Christ's creation.

We would not be able to behold the beauty in a child's face, nor would we be able to behold a sunrise in all its majestic glory as it carpets the landscape with its rich red and orange hues.

It's because of light that we have sight.

Yet light has properties which we are unable to harness or control.

They say that light is something akin to waves but also has properties that are more akin to particles, making it all the more difficult to even try and explain it.

To try and place light in a container is impossible, though we try to manufacture it with bulbs and the like.

Yet with all the technology of the 21st century at our fingertips, our lights are artificial at best and still require some type of mysterious power before it will illuminate its surroundings.

There's something oddly mysterious about light, isn't there?

As 1 author put it, we don't see light, we only see what it touches.

That is 1 of the reasons I enjoy photography as I do.

I've shared with you before my enjoyment of the art, it's the closest thing perhaps to capturing light.

The camera receives the light patterns and captures it, a still frame, a glimpse at a moment in time.

If I were to take a picture of a ballet, for example, it would only give you an idea of the experience.

It's a still frame of a beautiful moment.

Try to take it in, too much of it, and your picture will wash out as though light itself were somehow camera shy.

But it's that glimpse, it's that brief moment that makes it all the more beautiful.

For it's the way that light peaks around the objects.

The way it lands just so upon them, leaving shades of green and blue and orange and so forth across the horizon in the landscape.

It's its dancing shadows and the warmth of light's gentle caress that makes the moment so real, so invigorating, so alive.

Certainly light has an elusive property, somewhat mysterious in its own right, but it's that elusive quality of light that makes it all the more captivating.

It requires, it almost demands a healthy respect and awe from its beholder.

You may look, it says, but don't try to control me like you've tried to control so much of what I have shown upon.

And so it is that the ancient record tells us how it happened in the first place.

It simply reads, and God said, let there be light.

What else was said amidst the Trinity, amidst the Godhead on that first day.

For 7 weeks, though disjointed by different things, we will return to the beginning of time as we know it.

We will start at the beginning of the book on the first page, on the first chapter, for it's here that we gather a glimpse, a first look at God.

And it's here where the stage is set for the rest of the story, the story of redemption.

I would like for you to enjoy, invite you to join me on this venture as we take a thoughtful look at why God made what he made.

I've chosen to entitle this summer series, which will likely go farther than that because we're looking at not just creation, but we're actually looking into the whole early years of the Genesis story, chapters 1 through 11.

But I've chosen to entitle this first volume, as it were, the creation account.

Lord, please speak to our hearts and minds.

We want to understand and appreciate your glory, your power, for it is in your creative ability that we experience and see divinity at work.

Without creation, we would have no redemption.

We Thank you, Lord, for recording the story, even though it seems in broad strokes and brief glimpses.

We thank you that within the story itself, we find a glimpse of your beauty and grace.

So speak to us now as we return to that first week.

John chapter 10 verse 30 says, I and my Father are 1.

We're talking about creation And God's saying, I and my Father are 1, which is interesting in light of chapter 1 of John.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

And I could go on a whole nother sermon study on the reality that Jesus is his own person, but he is also God, Amen?

Verse 3 says this, all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made.

So here in John chapter 1 we are told that creation was carried forth, was executed, specifically led out by Jesus Christ.

God the Father was there, The Holy Spirit was there, but Jesus led the work.

Colossians 1, 14 to 17 says, "'In whom, ' talking about Jesus here, "'in whom we have redemption through whose blood?

Jesus' blood, his blood, Jesus Christ's blood, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

For by Jesus, by Him, all things were what?

Created and that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible.

Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him, through Jesus and for him.

Because God is eternal, has always been, and will always be.

This may be very basic, but we are going back to creation.

Just as Jesus is our Savior, so He is our Creator.

Notice what it says in verse 8, but to who?

A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.

Then notice verse 10, again God is talking to the Son, the Father to the Son, and you, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.

The Bible is clear that God created the world with nothing but his word.

As we do see though, his hands participated on day 6.

Hebrews 11 verse 3 says, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

This will keep us out of a lot of trouble when it comes to trying to understand creation.

People have so destroyed the first story in the Bible.

They have tried to explain it, to diagram it, to dissect it, but why Can't we just enjoy the simple elegance of the story as recorded in Genesis 1?

He says, you know, nobody, you didn't argue with the teacher when they said A is A.

You're gonna say, well, yeah, but you know, if I go back to certain sources.

You just accepted it, and when you accepted it, everything came together, right?

A whole new world opened up because you learned all 26.

And I would suggest to you that if we will learn all 7 and appreciate it as it is, it'll all come together.

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Series

Genesis

01 The Creation Account: Let There Be Light

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Plenary

Encountering the Glory of God

58m

Personal Encounters with Jesus

3. Seeing Is Believing: The Man Born Blind

57m

May Your Joy Be Full

39m

Studies in the Book of Revelation

Revelation 8

56m

God's First Book, Our First Classroom

5. Connecting with the Creator in His Creation

1h 7m

Plenary

The Flip Side of Service

1h 30m

Plenary

Let There be Light

58m

Plenary

He Must Arise

1h 48m

The Converting Light

46m

Sound Doctrine