Prelude
Call to Worship Hebrews 11:3
Hymn JBC # 10 We have come into His house
The Prayer Time
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC # 125 All creatures of our God and King
Offering
Scripture Genesis 1:1~5
Prayer
Sermon “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 121 I sing the mighty pow’r of God
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude
Today we are offering the first Sunday worship service of the fiscal year 2024. In Japan, a new fiscal year generally begins in April.
I imagine that some of you students have moved on to a new school or went up to a new grade. I pray that your new school year will be fruitful and blessed by God.
Our church will also begin a new fiscal year in April, and this year we will walk together in our church life with our annual motto, "Standing on the Word of the Lord".
A Christian is a person who believes that Jesus Christ is God (God who became man, who is both man and God at the same time) and has made a decision to live his/her life following Christ as their Lord.
Last Sunday, March 31, we offered an Easter service to commemorate and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and risen on the third day.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and His appearing to His disciples and many others confirmed that He was indeed the Son of God, and that His words and deeds were the very words and deeds of God Himself.
The resurrected Jesus returned to heaven. Now, God's appearance, Jesus's appearance are invisible to us. However, God has left us the words of the Bible as His Word.
Therefore, we can still hear God's voice and know His will through the words of the Bible.
However, if you read the Bible alone, you run the risk of reading it in a way that suits you and your own preferences. Above all, there are many passages in the Bible that cannot be understood when read alone.
Originally, the words of the Bible were put together for people to hear and share the words as they were read aloud.
Therefore, it is important to read the Bible alone, but it is also important to read and share the words of the Bible with other believers, and to listen to the Word of God together in church services.
By doing so, we can come find out many other interpretations of the Word of God that we would never have known if we had read it alone.
In this way, it is our hope that this year we will be Word-centered and build up our faith in walking with the Word as our foundation.
Over the course of this year, we will cover the entire Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament in our worship messages.
Today, the first Sunday service of the new fiscal year, we will focus on the words of the Lord from the beginning of the first book of the Old Testament, "Genesis," chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.
The statement in verse 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," begins the book of Genesis and the entire Bible. From the very beginning, the Bible clearly declares that God is the Maker of heaven and earth.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is a very simple and clear statement. And it seems to me that nothing could be more powerful, more beautiful, or more overwhelming than this very sentence.
For those who already believe in Jesus Christ and confess their faith in Him, this sentence reminds them that the God they believe in is the very Creator who made heaven and earth (and all things).
Even for those who are not yet familiar with the Bible, this sentence at the beginning of Genesis tells the truth: "There is indeed one God who created everything in the world, the heavens and the earth, including the universe."
If we read (or listen to) this sentence repeatedly and meditate on it in our hearts, it becomes clear that it is not the product of human thoughts and feelings.
This first sentence in Genesis also teaches us that "through the Bible we hear and experience the story (truth) of God's creation.
Some people may be confused when they suddenly hear that God created the heavens and the earth, not knowing how to take it in.
"What kind of being is this God who created the heavens and the earth?" The answer to that question is provided throughout the Bible, especially in the New Testament books known as the Gospels.
Therefore, when we read the Bible (or hear the words of the Bible), it is also a process of repetition and learning about “who God is”.
As we seek to live by the words of the Bible, the words of the Lord God, what is required of us is that we open our hearts.
As we go through life's experiences, we gradually acquire our own experiences and ideas, as well as our own abilities and capabilities.
At times, what the Bible says may be at odds with our own thoughts, experiences, and perceptions.
At such times, I believe that instead of closing our minds, we should have the attitude of keeping the door of our hearts open and asking God honestly, saying, "What does this word mean and what does it have to do with me?" and also asking other believers.
Ultimately, belief in God and in His work of creation is given to us by faith.
And faith will be given to us when we do not cling to our own thoughts and ideas, but in a sense when we abandon ourselves, open our hearts, and accept God into our hearts.
In the New Testament book of ‘Hebrews’, chapter 11, verse 3, it is written:
Hebrew 11:3
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
By faith we believe in God's work of creation, and let us share in the wonder and joy of being alive in this world that God has created.
In today's passage, the beginning of the Book of Genesis, we find the first words of God. The memorable first words of God (first words in the sense that they are communicated to us human beings) were "Let there be light."
Verse 3 “let there be light”
The light appeared by the Word of God. The absence of God's light is described in verse 2.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The state without God's light is a chaos (formlessness, emptiness, and lack of order) and darkness. But God has allowed His light to shine in this world.
In chaos and darkness we cannot live. We do not know where to go in the darkness without order.
But God created light so that we can follow His light and walk in it.
In the New Testament, there is a passage that says the following about this light
2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
Light, that is, the light of Jesus Christ, the light of His glory (the glory of God), they say.
God has created a world where there is light, not chaos and darkness. And God created each of us to live in that light, the light of Jesus Christ, in our hearts.
The light of Jesus Christ goes before us and shows us where to go and how to live.
We read the Word of the Bible and pray so that we can see the path shown to us by Christ.
Through prayer and the Word of God, let us choose the path that is illuminated by the light of God, or Christ, and let us walk in that path together.
Today's passage is from Genesis 1:1-5, and this entire chapter describes how God created everything in the world, even living things, including human beings, according to the order God had determined.
The first half of verse 31 of chapter 1 reads as follows
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Thus, the Bible says that God made everything in the world, and that from God's point of view, it was all "very good."
God made this world and everything in it and that lives in it, and all of it is "very good" in God's eyes.
In our eyes, there are many things about our society and the world we live in, and the things that happen in it, that can’t be taken as good things.
Especially when we look at the reality that there are tragic wars going on all over the world, where people are fighting each other, or countries and organizations are fighting each other, it is hard to believe that such a world can be good.
Let us listen to the words of Psalm 19:8~9 (7~8 NIV), the motto of our church for this year and its related scriptures.
Stand on the Word of the Lord.
Psalm 19:7~8 (NIV)
The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
In this section of Psalm 19,”the law, statues, precepts, and commands of the Lord” are the Word of the Lord.
Where is the light of God? Where is God's light and hope in a world that seems to our eyes to be full of tragic and cruel realities?
It is when we see the world through the Word of the Lord (the Word of the Bible), and not through our own thoughts and what we see, that we can recognize the light and hope of God.
When we depend on and receive the Word of the Lord, we can recognize that God's light is indeed shining in the world and that God's work of creation is "very good.
Each time we are able to recognize each good work of God's creation by faith, God's peace, not chaos, will be created all around us.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. These words are truth and hope.
The heavens and the earth, the world that God created, is "very good." Through the light of the Word of God, let us always abound in the joy of living in the world God has created.
God made this world and everything in it and that lives in it, and all of it is "very good" in God's eyes.
In our eyes, there are many things about our society and the world we live in, and the things that happen in it, that can’t be taken as good things.
Especially when we look at the reality that there are tragic wars going on all over the world, where people are fighting each other, or countries and organizations are fighting each other, it is hard to believe that such a world can be good.
Let us listen to the words of Psalm 19:8~9 (7~8 NIV), the motto of our church for this year and its related scriptures.
Stand on the Word of the Lord.
Psalm 19:7~8 (NIV)
The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
In this section of Psalm 19,”the law, statues, precepts, and commands of the Lord” are the Word of the Lord.
Where is the light of God? Where is God's light and hope in a world that seems to our eyes to be full of tragic and cruel realities?
It is when we see the world through the Word of the Lord (the Word of the Bible), and not through our own thoughts and what we see, that we can recognize the light and hope of God.
When we depend on and receive the Word of the Lord, we can recognize that God's light is indeed shining in the world and that God's work of creation is "very good.
Each time we are able to recognize each good work of God's creation by faith, God's peace, not chaos, will be created all around us.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. These words are truth and hope.
The heavens and the earth, the world that God created, is "very good." Through the light of the Word of God, let us always abound in the joy of living in the world God has created.
