“Maker of Heaven and Earth”
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#3 Affirming the Essentials-Sermon Series on the Apostle’s Creed:
There is an old line about a Scottish preacher who was described as invisible during the week and incomprehensible on Sunday. Well, I have tried over the years never to be invisible and certainly not be incomprehensible; but when you do a series of sermons, a series of doctrinal sermons, you run the risk of being less than understandable. We have been doing a series on the Apostles’ Creed and we have been talking about God. God might be said to be an incomprehensible subject. Now that doesn’t mean nonsensical. It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t make any sense; it just means that we sometimes have a hard time understanding who God is and what he is and it is difficult. That doesn’t mean we can’t say things about God; as a matter of fact, we can say many things that are true about God. But, of course, “God is so big and so strong and so mighty,” so much bigger than we are, we have a hard time, especially today, to some degree. We are talking about God as the Maker.
We started out by talking about how the Creed says, “I believe,” that means you, individually, have to come to faith. You can’t depend on others’ faith. You believe in “God the Father.” We learned last week that Father has nothing to do with gender because God, though we might describe him in a way like this, he is not really “the man upstairs.” God is a spirit. We also talked a little bit about how right at the beginning it said that “God created man in his image, male and female he created them.” So, somehow masculinity and femininity together makeup the image of God, in a sense. Now that is a mystery, a little bit of a mystery; but it is kind of cool to think of it in that way. I think it is, anyway. And we learned quite a bit more. But today we are moving into “I believe in the Father, …Maker of Heaven and Earth,” Maker of heaven and earth.
Let’s pray together as we begin.
Lord God, help us to understand you more and as we understand you we might learn more about you and also how to serve you and to live for you and learn more about ourselves and our own life and what we are supposed to be doing. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, our Savior.
Suppose that you were attending a funeral of a loved one. You get into a car, you go to a chapel or a funeral parlor, or wherever it happens to be and you are there with all kinds of people to honor your loved one, relatives, friends from all over the place. A line is forming up to the front of the casket and they are paying their last respects. When it comes to be your turn, you look into the casket; and, lo and behold, the person in the casket is you, several years from now. You sit down, you look into the bulletin. You notice that several people are going to speak— one is your best friend, another is your wife or your husband, or son or daughter, someone in the family, another is a coworker or fellow student, maybe someone from your church. What would you want them to say about you in that moment? What would you want them to say is the difference you made in lives, or the effect you had on people? What would they say about you? Were you more interested in your career than people? or you really cared?
We have all heard about the ladder of success, how people spend their lives climbing that ladder or doing something, achieving something; sometimes throwing others off as they climb to the top. Yet so many people in the world today are climbing this ladder achieving things and they get to the place where they look around and they find that the ladder is on the wrong wall. They haven’t done what Stephen Covey talks about, that is “beginning with the end in mind.” That is an important principle to live by: beginning with the end in mind. I find in so many ways all of us fail to look ahead and see what exactly the purpose is in what we are doing. Because we haven’t begun with the end in mind, we don’t know why we are doing it. I’ve been the pastor of several churches in twenty odd years of pastoring and I often have been asked when I am interviewed with a church, where do you want your church to be in five years? And you know what? It is surprising how few people can really answer that question, and it even makes them real uncomfortable. Now when you are looking for a job, don’t make people feel uncomfortable, that is not a good thing. But it is interesting. We all do that. I do it. We don’t begin with the end in mind. And that is important. On the other hand there is another principle which I want to tie in with this and that is: begin with the beginning in mind.
Author Dorothy Sayers, who wrote a lot of mystery novels, used to say in describing— as a matter of fact, in one of the who done it at the end of the chapter books she wrote, she said, “If you know the how, you know the who.” There is some truth to that but when it comes to the Bible and the Apostles’ Creed, the Apostles’ Creed and the Bible are more concerned with Who than how. The first two chapters of Genesis are often criticized as being mythology or whatever you want to call it; but its purpose is not to talk about the details, it is to talk about the who. In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth. Today, though, the scientific preoccupation is just the opposite. It is with how things work and came to be. There seems to be no interest, at least publicly, for who is responsible at all. For Christians it seems so very strange to spend so much time and money and effort to know nature and how it works, but ignoring what we think matters most, namely, who the Creator is. Now, I know people will tell us, “We already know the answer of who, it’s chance,” or evolution, or whatever it is. That is not an answer, it really isn’t. Whether you believe that God said it happened and it did, or if you believe in evolution, who started the process in the first place? And that is the answer of the Creed.
So with the Bible, we begin with the beginning in mind, who started it and the Creed and the Bible answer that question. It is none other than God. The Bible says, this is so typical of everywhere in the Scripture, the idea: “Know that the Lord is God.” (Remember we talked about how there is only one God in the Creed and the Bible and he has a name.) “It is He who made us and we are His.” (That is very important. We will talk a little bit about ownership in just a minute) “We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 100:3.) He made us. God is the one who made us. “In the beginning God made” or “I believe in God the Father, who made heaven and earth.”
Now what did God do? I have a book that I have been reading, a small book by J.I. Packer who is a great author and talks a lot about doctrinal issues in a very clear way for Christians and I really recommend him as a writer. He has a book on the Apostles’ Creed and he talks about “introducing the Artist.” I like that concept. You know, with some limitations which we will talk about in just a minute, you can tell a whole lot about who God is by looking at the creation and God and his artistry of doing that. Now I mean Artist with a capital A in every kind of way, not just a painter or a dancer or a poet, though God is all of those things. God tells stories, he tells the best stories and we do, too. Every human being from the beginning; little babies are creative; everybody is. You might say, well wait a minute I don’t know how to draw a thing. I’m in that boat. I do very well to draw stick figures. But on the other hand, all of us are creative. You know some of us are creative, some of us are creative in the ways we are able to organize things. Some of us are creative because we can build cars and work on them; or we can build houses or we can organize an office or we can manage things, not just draw things. All of that is being creative and every human being is creative. And that is who God is. We can look at the creation and see just how incredibly complex it is or how big God is. Theologians call it immensity, fancy word, but that’s what they mean— is that God is so big. You know the big storm we had the other day, right after it was just a gorgeous sunset—the beauty of the earth in so many ways. God, we can say truthfully is beautiful, even though we don’t really know what he looks like. There is beauty in God’s heart and mind because God made all of it. And on and on we could go. God is the Artist.
Here is what J.I. Packer writes. He says, “The message of Genesis 1 and 2 (and the Creed) is this: ‘You have seen the sea, the sky, the sun, moon and stars. You have watched the birds and the fish. You have observed the landscape, the vegetation, the animals, the insects, all the big things and little things together. You have marveled at the wonderful complexity of human beings, with all their powers and skills, and the deep feelings of fascination, attraction, and affection that men and women arouse in each other. Fantastic, isn’t it? Well now, meet the One who is behind it all!’ As if to say: now that you have enjoyed these works of art, you must shake hands with the artist; since you were thrilled by the music, we will introduce you to the composer. It was to show us the Creator rather than the creation, and to teach us knowledge of God rather than physical science, that things were written.” Amen. I have always found that…I have told you before that I love science. I am an amateur reader of different things that go on and I keep up with a few things, here and there, as much as I can understand. But it has always struck me as incredibly curious how there isn’t that question. “Well this is how things work and this is this that and the other.” It’s great. I love that stuff. But who? Who are we dealing with here? Is chance really the creator of the universe? Give me a break. Meet the Artist, that’s what the Bible wants to say. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. It is to introduce us to the person, the details. You know what is interesting about Genesis 1 is that it roughly does seem to follow what we are discovering. That is another issue, but it is very interesting. But that doesn’t really matter. That is the point, right there. “In the beginning was God who created…” Now how are we to understand this?
Well back when I was in seminary, I wrote a paper on some theologian. There was a famous professor who had longed since retired and as an excuse to speak to him I put my paper in his box and wrote a little note, and he was kind enough to do this with students. “Would you please read it and comment on it?” The famous man, the great man, invited me to his house and talked to me. He was so kind, I will never forget it. Of course, the paper was garbage, but…. or just so far beneath the great man. But he was famous for illustrating what theologians called the Creator-Creature Distinction. Now hang with me for a minute. I will show you what he did. He used to draw a circle and a little circle on a blackboard, just like that. Now of course the big circle is God. If we were to really think about God, it would be much bigger! But that is what he would do. Then the little circle is creation or us. God, the arrow coming down, is the one who makes the little circle and we reflect, the image of creation, reflects God. The Creator-Creature Distinction is very, very important in Christian thoughts. It is exceptionally important for a variety of reasons.
First it reminds us of who God is. That God is the Creator, the Maker of everything. That God is not a part of the Creation. Notice the circles are separate. It is hard to understand sometimes why that is important, but everywhere you go there are different ideas about God. One of the very strong ideas of God is different kinds of pantheism, which means that God is part of the trees and part of the earth, and we are all one and all is one. You have heard that idea, I’m sure. No, God is the Maker of it all. He is separate from his creations. If creation didn’t exist, God would be happily moving along doing whatever God does. God in his mercy and his plan made the creation, the heavens and the earth, not only the earth but the billions and billions of stars that are out there. All of it, but he is immense, and God is so big, God made it. That is very important. There are so many ideas that sort of infiltrate; they are very popular today. I have used the illustration many times of Star Wars, you know “The force..” Well, if you really watch it very carefully, they explain what the force is in one of the movies, and how the force creation creates it, it is all around us. Then there is that yin and yang idea of the light side and the dark side, and all that kind of thing. It’s fun. It is interesting, but, not true. But yet a lot of people say, ‘Yeah that’s what it is like. Isn’t it cool?” No. The truth is truth. God is the Maker, he’s separate. Now the creation does reflect God, I said that. We have to be careful with that, but it is true. We reflect God in a way. And that is very true. The wonder of the creation tells us a little bit about who God is. The wonder of you. John Calvin even said once that “the way we know God first is to know ourselves.” Interesting idea. He starts that at the very beginning of the Institutes; that is what he says.
Yet, of course, God is bigger than all of us and that is hard to understand but we have to remember that God is who God is. I have said before but I am quoting Steve Brown who is a great preacher and he says, “You know, it is interesting how so many people have different opinions about who God is and think that they are all valid.” But Steve goes on to say “You know it is like having the opinion about the multiplication table. You might have an opinion that two times two equals five, but does it matter? Does it really matter?” See our opinions don’t determine who God is. God is who God is and our job is to figure out who God is, and to learn who God is, and accept that and learn more about it. But one of the modern themes is that we make God who we want to be for ourselves. God is made in our image. No, that is heresy. That is more than wrong. It becomes very bad when people take that idea and they run with it and they use it sometimes to dominate others. But that is part of another sermon. It can be very evil. God is who God is. So it reminds us who God is because God is God. “To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal? says the Holy One. Lift your eyes ad look to the heavens: who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name.” (Isaiah 40:25-26). God has name for all the billions and billions and billions of stars and galaxies. That is quite a computer database, don’t you think? Because of his great power and mighty strength, incomprehensible power and incomprehensible strength but not one of them is missing.
It also reminds us, the Creator-Creature Distinction reminds us what the creation is. That it is good. Now again, the creation stops a misunderstanding. You know sometimes people think that the world came into existence through natural processes, through chance. Now, I am not going to argue evolution or not. All of those kinds of different things; if you are in school, learn all those things, figure it out. We can debate that. That isn’t really the point. But what I have trouble with is the philosophy behind some of it; which is, it all came about be itself, by chance. We can’t accept that. For the Bible asserts first and foremost that the world exists by the will and power of its Maker and that history is His-story.
You know, in the last few weeks, of course, we have seen this oil spill and all those kinds of things, and the question of environmentalism has come up big time. You know, I really think there is a Christian environmentalism, but, hear me for a minute. What does that mean? Well, it starts with the idea that God is the Maker and that we as human beings, created in his image, have been given authority over creation as stewards. Remember, stewardship doesn’t just mean we want your money. It is the idea that you take care of somebody else’s property. So we are responsible to God for taking care of the creation that he has made and that is good. We need to be aware of the creation, not just abuse it, because God doesn’t want us to do that. Some of the environmentalism that is out there today doesn’t have God as its center and almost becomes religious in its self. We have to be very careful with that, making the world our mother. Or it is almost a religious fanaticism. We have to be careful with that. We have a tragedy in the Gulf, there is no doubt about that; and we have to be careful as Christians to be for the creation, but it belongs to God, and it exists the way God made it. It is bigger than we are in so many ways, and there is so much about the creation that we don’t know; we probably know one-millionth of one percent of it. I don’t know what the percentage is, we don’t know a whole lot; but it is that God is the Lord of it. No asteroid, no act of man will end it unless the Maker wills it.
Again, and second, it is his world and we are not the owners. And third, that we must not depreciate it. I love this phrase: “God saw everything He made and it was good.” (Genesis 1:31) You know there is a lot of theology out there, both pagan and Christian, which depreciates the creation. It says, “Do you know what being spiritual means? It means to be aesthetic; it means to not have anything to do with the Creation.” It is a strong stream in Christian theology and it is not right. God gave us the creation to enjoy, and to take care of it, because he said “it was good.” God will remake the heavens and earth. It doesn’t say that God is going to make us all spiritual beings and we will all sit around on a cloud going mmmmm, singing hymns; no God is going to remake the heavens and the earth. I do not know what all that means but there is a physicality to what God is going to do. He is going to re-create everything. And God can do it because he is God.
Last and not least, the Creator-Creature Distinction reminds us of who WE are. There is an old story, you may have heard it before, about a group of scientists who came to God and said, “You know, we don’t think we need you any more. We can do everything that you do. We can create human beings if we need to.” God said, “O.K. lets have a contest.” “Fine.” So they all met at the appointed date, the scientists on one side and God on the other. The scientists brought out a box and God said, “What’s in the box?” They said, “We brought dirt so we could make a human being.” God said, “Wait a minute. You have to make your own dirt.”
J.I. Packer says that “one of the first things we have to come to grips with in our lives is that we must face the fact that God is the boss, that God is the big cheese, that God is the Lord, and we are not.” We are not our own makers and since God is the Maker, he is also the owner. You know if I had enough time to talk with someone, particularly someone who is intellectual, and had a lot of questions about the faith, and we had a chance over coffee to talk, I would talk about faith and what it meant and that it was not just an intellectual thing that believed that God exists but it has to do with trust. It has to do with putting our trust in God but there is more to faith than just that. It also has to do with surrender. We have to surrender back to God what’s his, and that is ourselves because God owns us. It is just the way it is! It is the way it is. Sometimes, what I have found as I have lived long enough, I have found that there are some things that I just have to accept, that I can’t do anything about. I started out my ministry I am going to change everything. I am going to do this. I am going to do that. Now I am lucky if I can just change myself. A friend of mine says he has reduced his goals to just improving his golf swing, and he is not doing very well at that. I can relate. I think Phil Mickelson can too…
The Creator-Creature Distinction reminds us of who we are. (Isaiah 40:6-8), famous passage: “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” You know, I have known many people who are immensely talented and they dedicated their lives to becoming famous or dedicated their lives to reaching the top of that ladder, or whatever it happened to be; and there is some goodness in that. Being famous is O.K. To do well in whatever you do, there is nothing wrong with success. But you know what every famous person, every ruler of the earth, what every person in the world has in common? They are all dead, or they are going to die. They may have had a great effect on life, while they are living, but they are all going to die. I am not being negative. It just is. We have to remember who we are. God is the one who lives forever. God is the one who owns the world, who made the world, who made us. Isn’t it logical to sort of hook your life into the one who is going to be around for a while? Maybe that is crass. It is more than that. It is believing and loving and following and serving, but we have to start with humility. It is just the way it is and sooner or later you are going to come to that place.
I had a friend of mine who was quoting Philippians, Chapter 2, where is says, “It all, in the end, every knee will bow …and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.” He said that includes people who never believed in it because sooner or later we will all bow the knee one way or another. Better to do it in life in faith and love and joy. Better to do it because we know who we are and who God is. As you go through life this week, think about that. Think about your relationship and maybe the parts of your life that you need to surrender back to him. We all have them. I think life is a process of surrender, truthfully, one thing after another. But ask God what are some areas in your life that you need to give up so that you can receive them back again in a way that he wants you to have them.
Let’s pray.
Lord thank you for being who you are. We don’t know all about that. We pray that you would help us understand more as we go along, both now and our whole lives, because our whole lives are spent getting to know you a little better. Help us understand the things better that we don’t understand, help us appropriate the things we do understand. We pray these things in your name, your glorious name. Amen.