KNOWING GOD, THE TRANSCENDENT CREATOR OF ALL THINGS

Rev. Canon George Sinclair

by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           

 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

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Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, March 26th,  2017:

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/51929/good_news_253_mar26.mp3

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Broadcast Notes:

This is a shortened version of a longer sermon that I gave at Church of the Messiah in Ottawa. You can go to their website for the full sermon. It was part of a series of Sermons on the first eleven chapters of Genesis entitled, "God: Creator And Sustainer Of All Things".

Knowing God,

The Transcendent Creator Of All Things

Genesis 1:1-2:3   -English Standard Version (ESV)

The Creation of the World

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

⁶ And God said, “Let there be an expanse^[a] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷ And God made^[b] the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. ⁸ And God called the expanse Heaven.^[c] And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹ And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry land Earth,^[d] and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants^[e] yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons,^[f] and for days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. ¹⁷ And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

²⁰ And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds^[g] fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” ²¹ So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴ 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 so. ²⁵ And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man^[h] 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.

²⁸ And God blessed 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.” 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. ³⁰ 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. ³¹ 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 Seventh Day, God Rests

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ² And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³ So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Footnotes:

1.      Genesis 1:6 Or a canopy; also verses 7, 8, 14, 15, 17, 20

2.     Genesis 1:7 Or fashioned; also verse 16

3.     Genesis 1:8 Or Sky; also verses 9, 14, 15, 17, 20, 26, 28, 30; 2:1

4.     Genesis 1:10 Or Land; also verses 11, 12, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30; 2:1

5.     Genesis 1:11 Or small plants; also verses 12, 29

6.     Genesis 1:14 Or appointed times

7.     Genesis 1:20 Or flying things; see Leviticus 11:19–20

8.    Genesis 1:26 The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind and becomes the proper name Adam

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1. God does not need a process or a timeline to create. He speaks, and what He wills is created, with all of its heights and depths, fine-tuned intricacy and "back-story".

2. Mere matter and energy will never create life - or a home.

3. The choice: "Matter, pure chance, and cause-and-effect accounts for life, and the intricate, fine-tuned universe" OR "God designed and created life and the intricate, fine-tuned universe".

4. The uncreated God created all things, visible and invisible, out of nothing.

5. God did not make creation like a stage set. He made creation with real height and depth and with a vast back story.

6. The biblical doctrine of creation means that we cannot know when God created. We can only begin to map creations heights and depths and explore its back story.

7. Image-bearer, know your Creator, the one, transcendent, omnipotent and good God who made the cosmos for your home.

8. Every claimant to be a rival to God is unmasked as a fraud.

9. Only God can create, so only He can re-create.

10. On the seventh day of creation, God said that His work was finished. On the Cross, God, the Son of God, said "It is finished". This is the Gospel.

Rev. Canon George Sinclair

Church of the Messiah

www.messiahchurch.ca
613-235-0596
messiahchurch.office@gmail.com

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/51929/good_news_253_mar26.mp3

'A FRESH START FOR 2017'

Rev. Juliet Schimpf By Rev. Juliet Schimpf   ___________________________ Broadcast Notes

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LINK to CFRA broadcast of Sunday, January 15^th, 2017

http://accm.ncf.ca/images/17.01.15.mp3

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I do want to say “Thank you” to Anne Matthews, a former Board Member of ‘Good News in the Morning’. Thank you, Anne, for making today’s broadcast possible through your generous support!

A Fresh Start for 2017

*  In John 1, three concepts are used in reference to Jesus Christ:  the Word, the Light of the world, and the Lamb of God.

*  Together, these three CONCEPTS REPRESENT:

1.  A NEW COMFORT:  GOD WITH US

2.  A NEW CONFIDENCE:  GOD FOR US

 3.  A NEW CHANCE:  GOD WITHIN US

*  Some of us today need comfort; some renewed confidence; others need a new chance.

A NEW COMFORT:  GOD WITH US--

CHRIST THE WORD

·         A.  THE WORD IS FULLY DIVINE;

o   The Gospel of Matthew traces Christ’s genealogy back to Abraham.  The Gospel of Luke traces His roots to the first human, Adam.  But the Gospel of John reaches beyond physical creation to state that Christ—the logos or Word—has always existed.

o   JOHN 1:1  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

o   THE WORD IS CO-ETERNAL, CO-EXISTENT, AND CO-EQUAL WITH GOD

o   A literal translation of the first phrase is:  “In beginning”—not “In the beginning”.  The phrase lacks a definite article.  In eternity past, before the beginning of anything

o   Charles Swindoll:  “In the indefinite expanse of timeless existence, in a beginning that had no beginning, the Word’ was existing in an eternal, infinite ‘present’.  The verb translated “was” represents the imperfect past tense of the Greek verb eimi, “to be”.  So the literal rendering of John’s first sentence is:  “in beginning was existing the Word.”

COMFORT 1

o   B.  THE WORD IS FULLY HUMAN

§  NOTICE THE PRONOUN “HE” IS USED IN REFERENCE TO THE WORD IN VERSE 2:  “HE WAS WITH GOD IN THE BEGINNING”

o   JOHN 1:14  “AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH”

o   John 1:14  “And the Word became flesh” –“flesh” (SARX) is used here (instead of “man”) to highlight the humanity of Jesus—His vulnerability and capability of suffering

o   JESUS IS GOD WITH SKIN

§  Believe it or not, in John’s day, most had no problem accepting the deity of Christ.  They were more troubled by His humanity.  The influence of Plato permeated every aspect of religion and philosophy so that anything tangible came to be seen as inherently evil.  One branch of philosophy—DOCETISM—suggested that Christ only seemed to be tangible, but was in fact a heavenly apparition.  The so-called Gnostic gospels tell stories of how Jesus created the illusion of eating food while never actually digesting it or needing to relieve Himself.  John’s terminology was unashamedly offensive to these false teachers.  John’s Gospel says, in effect, “The Word became meat.”  He lived among us in the material world. 

o   1John1:1 the apostle puts it in unmistakable terms:  “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” 

o   MAX LUCADO:  Some questions for Joseph:  “Did you and Jesus arm wrestle?  Did he ever let you win?”  Some questions for Mary:  “Did the thought ever occur to you that the God to whom you were praying was asleep under your own roof?  Did he ever come home with a black eye?  Did you ever scold him?  Did you ever accidentally call him Father?  Did you ever think, ‘That’s God eating my soup’?”

o   DIETRICH BONHOEFFER:  “Only a suffering God can help”—God is not indifferent to human tragedy and pain

·          COMFORT 2:

o   John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and lived among us”

§  NIV:   “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”—the word “dwell” translates literally as “pitched his tent or tabernacle among us” and harks back to the tabernacle of Israel’s wilderness wanderings.

§  THE MESSAGE:  “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the NEIGHBOURHOOD.”

o   Put simply, we have a God who can relate to us! 

o   HEBREWS 4:¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”

o   JEAN VANIER:  “The Word became flesh to communicate to us human beings caught in the mud, the pain, the fears and the brokenness of existence, the life, the joy, the communion, the ecstatic gift of love that is the source of all love and life and unity in our universe and that is the very life of God.”

o   FBC = CHURCH IN HEART OF PERTH WITH HEART FOR PERTH

o   HOT CHOCOLATE

   

A NEW CONFIDENCE:  GOD FOR US--

CHRIST THE LIGHT

●  JOHN 1:9  “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.”   [John 8:12:  “I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD”]

● 1.  CAUSE FOR CONFIDENCE:

*  John 1:5  “The light shines in the darkness AND THE DARKNESS DID NOT OVERCOME IT.”

§  TLB  “DID NOT EXTINGUISH”

§  NEB “DID NOT “MASTER”—the darkness did not grasp or comprehend the light

*  John 16:33  [Jesus speaking] “In this world, you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”

o   F.F. Bruce:  what the Evangelist has in mind here [re. the term “light”] is the spiritual illumination that dispels the darkness of sin and unbelief….here light is to be understood ethically:  light is a synonym of goodness and truth, while darkness is a synonym of evil and falsehood. 

·         ROBBIE PARKER—EMILY PARKER….

·         John 1:9  “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”

o   “TRUE” (alethes) IS NOT THE MOST ACCURATE TRANSLATION—alethinos means “real or genuine as opposed to unreal”…so what John is saying is that Jesus is the real light come to enlighten and to illumine them…..before Jesus came there were other lights which men followed; some were flickers of the truth…but Jesus is the only genuine light…

·         2. CONFIDENCE:  John 1:4  “In Him was life, and the life was the light of all people”.

o   JOHN 10:10  ‘I HAVE COME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE, AND HAVE IT TO THE FULL…”

o   JOHN 14:6  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  John 11:25  “Jesus said to her [Martha]  ‘I am the resurrection and the life.“

o   Life will not be easy.

• We have to wrestle with:
• Its cruel tests,
• Its snarling temptations
• Its bitter failures
• Its pressures in a competitive world

o   Zoe (life) is used here to designate the divine, eternal life of God (EPHE. 4:18)…..Human beings are born with natural life—called psuche in Greek (translated “soul”, “personality”, or “life”), but they do not possess eternal life.  This life can be received only by believing in the one who possesses the zoe life—namely, Jesus Christ

o   Life is a an offer!  It is used 36 times in John ‘s gospel. 

o   Romans 8:31  “If God is for us, who can be against us?” 

o   Luke 1:37  “for nothing will be impossible with God”

o   1 John 5:4  “for everyone born of God overcomes the world.  This is the victory that has overcome the world.”

A NEW CHANCE:  GOD WITHIN US--

CHRIST THE LAMB OF GOD

·         THE WORD NOT ONLY MOVES INTO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD; HE ALSO MOVES INTO US!

·         HOW DOES A NEW CHANCE COME ABOUT?—GRACE!!!! 

o   John 1:14  “and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” 

o   John 1:16  “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” 

o   John 1:17  “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

●  PHILIP YANCEY:  “___[GRACE]_____ is Christianity’s best gift to the world.” 

●  HOW IS CHRIST’S BIRTH CONNECTED TO GRACE (I.E. A NEW CHANCE IN LIFE)—THE LAMB

• THE GOSPEL OF JOHN ANSWERS THE CENTRAL QUESTION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT—NAMELY, “WHERE IS THE LAMB?” (GENESIS 22:7)
• JOHN 1: 36  “LOOK (BEHOLD)—HERE IS THE LAMB OF THE GOD!”

o   JOHN 1:29  “Here is the Lamb off “God who takes away the sin of the world.”

●  A SPIRITUAL REBIRTH—OR A NEW CHANCE—IS ON OFFER!

o   WE MUST COME TO GOD AND ACCEPT THE GIFT OF HIMSELF

o   THIS MEANS ACCEPTING BOTH THE GIFT OF THE BABY IN THE MANGER AND ALSO THE GIFT OF THE MAN ON THE CROSS

o   WHICH MEANS VIEWING THE MANGER THROUGH THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS

o   JOHN 1:12  “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

o   1 John 5:4  “for everyone born of God overcomes the world.  This is the victory that has overcome the world.”

o   Philippians 2:6  “[JESUS CHRIST] Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

*  those habits, those sins….

THE TRANSCENDENT GOD DARED TO BE AN IMMANENT GOD!

*  baby in manger is neither cute nor quaint; he is awe-inspiring!

• PAUL:  Galatians 2:20  “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

o   BOTTOM LINE:  YOU ARE NOT ALONE (“I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU”)

o   SAINT ANSELM:  “The virgin birth has never been a major stumbling block in my struggle with Christianity; it’s far less mind-boggling than the Power of all Creation stooping so low as to become ___ONE OF US______.”

o   MATTHEW 1:23  “they will call him Immanuel—which means, “God with us”—more proof of the deity of Christ; He is God

·         [BULLETIN]  C.S. LEWIS:  “God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from ___HIMSELF___, because it is not there.  There is no such thing.”

o    

·         ●  ISAIAH 9   “² The people walking in darkness
   have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
   a light has dawned.”

2.  FURTHER CAUSE FOR CONFIDENCE

• 2 CORINTHIANS 4:6 “God has made this light shine in our hearts...”
• Of what does the light consist?  NASB:  Verse 6:  “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ”
• COLOSSIANS 1:27  “CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY”

• 2 Corinthians 4:7:  “we have this treasure in JARS OF CLAY, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves…”—NLT “that’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us.”
• 2 CORINTHIANS 4: 8-9
• A. “We are pressed on every side by troubles…BUT WE ARE NOT CRUSHED.”
• B.  “We are perplexed…BUT NOT DRIVEN TO DESPAIR”
• C.  “We are hunted down…BUT NEVER ABANDONED BY GOD”
• D.  “We get mowed down…BUT WE ARE NOT DESTROYED”

●  2 CORINTHIANS 12:9-10  NIV  “But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Rev. Juliet Schimpf

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

http://accm.ncf.ca/images/17.01.15.mp3