Creation and Re-Creation, Pt. 1
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In many ways, the world we live in is wonderful. But there’s brokenness, heartbreak, and sin everywhere. So we long for the day when everything is made new. Pastor Nick Gatzke traces one of the biggest themes in all of Scripture––from Genesis all the way to Revelation––the story of creation and re-creation.
I wonder if you’ve ever heard the saying, everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. I don’t know who originally said that, but for a lot of people, it stuck because there’s been a song written based on this expression in almost nearly every genre of music. There’s a country song based on this. There’s a bluegrass song based on this. There’s a blues song based on this. There’s also a Christian song based on the idea that everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. And it’s true in some ways, isn’t it? Everyone desires things about the afterlife, but there are so many unknowns between today and that day
right now, into eternity. Today we continue our series that we are calling From Old to New to You. This is a series in which we’re tracing themes across the whole Bible from beginning to end, and it helps us to see how the story of God relates, not only in its entirety, but also how it relates to our life. You might think about it this way.
Sometimes when you’re reading the Bible, you feel like you are walking through a path in the middle of the woods, and you like where you are. It’s beautiful where you are, but you don’t exactly understand where you are in the arc of the whole path or the long trail that you’re on. And the same is true in many ways as we look at this. You don’t see the forest for the trees, as the expression goes. But when you stop and you look at the themes of the Bible traced through the story of God from beginning, middle, it becomes like the trail map for you. You can rise above the forest and you can look at where you are on the path. And as a result, you understand God even more fully. Today, we look at a theme that is very much a theme from the beginning all the way to the end. It’s the theme of creation and recreation. The story of God begins with the fact that God creates. And the story of God ends with the reality that he recreates. And so let me tell you this story from beginning to end.
And we’re going to engage a number of passages in the Bible along the way. We’ll put most of them up on the screen. You can follow along in your copy of the scriptures. If you have it with you, it’s the story of God. It’s the story of creation and recreation. And it begins in the very first verses of the Bible. Genesis chapters 1 and 2 is the account of God creating the world.
And in fact, the very first words that we are supposed to understand about who God is, Genesis 1 and 2 is this: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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.”
And from there we see three realities about creation that we’re meant to understand. In Genesis 1 and 2 we see the fact that God created the world by the power of his word. He merely spoke, and matter came into existence. And that matter was organized in a specific way, the way that he intended it to. That is how powerful the words of God are. The second thing we’re meant to understand is that God created the world ex nihilo, or out of nothing. Some of us have grown up without a knowledge of God, and so we’re tempted to disregard the Bible’s teaching on creation because we have this false notion that science and the Bible are at sharp odds with each other. Conversely, some of us have grown up hearing the story of God and God’s creative works since a young age, and as a result, we might be tempted to gloss over the grandeur of such inability to create something out of nothing.
Creativity is lauded throughout all of history as an incredible ability. And creators of much less stature than God are some of the most famous people in the history of the world. Whether that’s in the arts, Da Vinci and Van Gogh and others, or whether that’s in the creation of sound. from musical composers who arrange instruments and notations into beautiful scores, like the American composer Aaron Copland, or the creation of incredible food, as the best chefs in the world find a combination of ingredients and flavors and preparation that make you sit back in wonder and awe. Or perhaps it’s the creation of new technology. that can do astonishing things that have never been done before at a pace that’s never been done before. And in fact, we see some of those technology giants today, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, racing to become the first billionaire to get into space on their own rocket.
These people have the incredible ability to create. And many of you have the incredible ability to create. to create wonderful things. But do you know what none of these people can do? None of them can create something out of nothing. Every single one of them needs material or access or knowledge that has been acquired by other people that they then can build upon. But when God created the world, he created the world out of nothing.
And the verbal paintbrush of God, which painted the landscapes, the sunrise over the Swiss Alps, or the sunset over the Pacific Ocean, or the tulip fields of Amsterdam, or the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands. This incredible verbal paintbrush of God. found his most beautiful, his greatest creation was when he created man and woman in his very own image. God created the world out of nothing. And that’s truly astonishing.
The third thing that we see in the first part of this story of God about creation is that God created the world with a purpose — he created the world for his glory. Colossians chapter 1 tells us of the role of Jesus in creation, and it describes that all things were created through him and for him, and in him all things hold together. To say that all things are created for him indicates a purpose. A purpose in creation. The purpose is to glorify the Son of God. The atmosphere, the mountains, the rivers, the plains, the vineyards, the livestock, the birds, the fish, and the humans. All things created for him. This is the purpose of creation. Revelation chapter 4 paints this same picture of the glory of God which is displayed in creation, as we see a scene of the throne room of heaven. And in this scene in Revelation 4 there are living creatures, four of them, surrounding the throne of God, crying repeatedly, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and And then the scene shifts to the 24 elders who are kneeling prostrate before God on his throne in worship to him and casting down their crowns on the ground. And this is what they are singing. They’re saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” The purpose of God creating is to display his glory, his splendor, his unique ability, and his character. And the story from the very beginning displays that everything that God created was good. And it had this incredible mark, imprint of the creator on it, and it had an incredible purpose.
But in the story of God, when Adam and Eve sinned against God, the creation was marred and the created were marred as well. And this results in Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden, the perfect sanctuary. And they had to enter a world that still bore the marks of God’s glory, but also the marks and the stain of sin. And sin provided more than just a small blight on God’s creation. It got worse and worse. And worse, as men and women and boys and girls continued in their sin to the point when this creation of God, which was perfect, was now barely recognizable. And the created who were in his image were so tarnished that God had great regret.
This leads to a type of re-creation. Genesis chapter 6 points to this recreation and it comes in the form of the flood. This is what it says in Genesis 6:5-7. It says, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heaven, for I am sorry that I have made them.” And the action of God in Genesis chapter 6 in which he does indeed flood the earth in many ways is a repeat of what God did back in Genesis 3 when he expelled Adam and Eve from the garden. Sin spoiled the perfect garden. And now sin had spoiled the perfect creation. And God judged the earth through a flood to cleanse the earth from sin.
But God was gracious. He spared Noah and his family and he saved them. And as the waters of the flood receded and a cleansed, in a sense, recreated earth emerged, the echoes of God’s blessing and commands to Adam and Eve were now upon Noah and his family. Genesis chapter 9 tells us this blessing. God blessed Noah and his sons and he said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” And he would go on to say that all of the beasts and living creatures of the heavens and the earth, all of the fish of the sea would be delivered into their hands and they would be food for them. And so God blesses and provides for Noah in this recreation. But even though the world is cleansed externally from sin, people have not been cleansed internally from sin.
And it didn’t take long for the story to progress and for God to judge the people again because of their pride and arrogance against God and against each other. And so at the Tower of Babel, God spreads them out and he confuses their language. Their sin has separated them from God again and from each other again. But then, in Genesis chapter 13, God recreates again. And this time, he doesn’t just recreate the physical world. This time, he recreates a person. And in this type of recreation, he creates a people. He recreates Abram.
who through his covenant with him promises to make him a great nation, to bless the whole world through him. And this recreation of a person is symbolized by the fact that he changes his name. What’s in a name, you ask? Well, the name in the ancient world communicates the essence of a person, their core being. And so to change somebody’s name is really quite a big deal. So when God changes his name from Abram to Abraham, he displays that he is making him a new person. And as this new person emerges, a new people, the people of Israel would come into play, a people. in which God would be their God and they would be his people and God would display his glory in all the world. And the story of the rest of the Old Testament then is a story of recreation and a cycle of rebellion and then God’s judgment and then recreation again and rebellion and judgment and recreation again. God loved his people. He revealed himself to his people. He helped his people. He redeemed his people to himself. People would eventually sin, they would eventually rebel, they’d eventually turn away. But God is gracious. He would not let them just continue to walk away forever. He judges their sin, not just to punish them, but also to direct them back to himself. And that is the story of God and his people throughout the Old Testament in summary form. And it’s important for you to know that because there’s an implication here for you and for me. Because I imagine that many of us, I know I have, experienced, not just once, even many times, this very same cycle, this very same dynamic. You might have felt like your relationship with God was going well, that you experienced his presence. In a palpable sense, you saw evidence of his love in your life, you enjoyed his blessing, and you were faithful to him in obedience. But like all of us, at some point, sin tempted you, not just once, but more than once. And you succumbed, not just once. But more than once, and not just twice, but more than twice. And eventually, perhaps, you became distant or apathetic toward God.
And sooner or later, the consequences of your actions may be caught up to you. This wasn’t by accident. This was God judging your sin to redirect you back to himself. And when you were brought back to your knees in surrender and dependence upon him, you experienced a type of spiritual renewal or maybe even you might call it recreation. God reminded you of what you once knew, of what you once had, of what you once loved. He brought you back to himself. He created the relationship with you and over time he recreates it again and he does it for your good and for his glory.
And so in the middle of this cycle, in the middle of this story of God in the world dealing with people at its peak moment, When sin and the cycle continued, God sends his son Jesus into the world to continue not only in creation, but now recreation in the world. And Jesus begins a work of recreation. He displays God’s glory in the world. He begins this act of recreation, but it’s not a recreation in the physical sense. It’s the recreation in a spiritual sense. It’s a recreation of people. And this is the magnificent news of the gospel, that no matter where you are or what you’ve done, in Jesus, you can become a new person.
And every single one of us gets to a point at one moment where we say, I don’t like the person I am or the person I’ve become or what I do or what I think or what I say. And in my darkest of moments, I know that nobody else likes me either. And certainly I can’t stand before God. with how ugly I can be on the inside. But when you trust Jesus to forgive you of your sins, he takes all of that sin away and he clothes you in his righteousness and he makes you a new person. He recreates you. In Jesus, you can become a new person.
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This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
