Lord of Heaven and Earth (Sermon Outline)

Written by Dr. Ray Bohlin

 I. The Creation Points All of Us to God – Romans 1:18-20

A.    In Romans. Paul’s theological defense of the gospel, he begins by telling us there is something we all know but most are suppressing truth – v.18.

B.     Paul tells us there is something we know and it is quite plain to us. It is plain to us because He has made it plain to us. Paul is being unmistakably clear. There is something we know because God has gone to great lengths to insure we know it. V.19

C.     And what is this unmistakable truth? Read v. 20. Paul basically says open your eyes. Look up into the skies, into the heavens. Look down at your feet and the ground, the grass, the trees, the insects, birds, and animals. Simply by observing the created things we know there is a God and we can know something of His divine nature and His eternal power.

D.    When I first visited the Grand Canyon I was overwhelmed with the hugeness of the spectacle before me, one mile deep and 10-18 miles across. It is truly a wonder. Later that night I expressed in my journal that as big as the Grand Canyon is, so big you really can’t absorb what you are seeing, God’s love for me is infinitely larger than even the Grand Canyon. I gained a new appreciation of the truth that God is Love from Creation. Perhaps you could share some lesson about God you have personally learned from nature.

E.     But what of those who suppress the truth? British atheist and Oxford University Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, Richard Dawkins said, “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.”[1] Darwin finally offered a purely natural mechanism to accomplish the production of complex animals and plants without God.

F.      Dawkins also freely admits that living things certainly look designed. “”Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” [2] He spends the remaining 317 pages trying to convince you, they are not designed. I’d say that’s suppressing the truth!

G.    Without God as Creator, he is eventually and effectively eliminated from consideration in all areas of life. His authority is dismissed. Thus as early as 1905, Darwin’s bulldog, the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, argued strongly for forced abortion and euthanasia based on Darwin’s survival of the fittest. He expressed outrage that “hundreds and thousands of incurables – lunatics, lepers, people with cancer, etc. – are artificially kept alive . . . without the slightest profit to themselves or the general body.” [3]

II.        Jesus Is the Creator – Colossians 1:15-17

A.    Paul tells us that Jesus is the person of the Trinity through whom the creation was brought about. Jesus is not only our Savior, but the Creator of all things.

B.     Jesus is not only the image of the invisible God, a sermon in itself, but he is the Creator of all things in heaven and on earth, both visible and invisible. Though Paul likely was thinking of “invisible” spirit beings or angels, there’s nothing to prevent us from extending this idea to physical things too small for us to see.

C.     The invisible world inside the cell, with its numerous integrative parts: molecular delivery systems (chaperone proteins), information libraries (chromosomes), motors (bacterial flagellum), scaffolding (cytoskeleton), engines churning out energy packed molecules (mitochondria), and precise assembly lines (ribosomes and polymerases).

D.    From the largest most distant galaxies to the inner particles of the atom, Jesus is the author of them all. Free images of some of these can be obtained off the internet by simply googling images for stars, galaxies, atoms, etc.

E.     The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the Word. Creator and Word. How appropriate then that in the creation psalm, Psalm 19, we are told that

              i.        The heavens tell of His glory

              ii.       The firmament declares His work

            iii.       The day pours forth speech and

            iv.        The night reveals knowledge

F.      How wonderful to know that Jesus is actively speaking to us through Creation of his glory, his work and his knowledge.

G.    The inner workings of the cell reveal design, plan, and purpose. These will reflect His glory, work and intelligence. The mind is stretched too far to accept that all this is a chance assemblage of parts. The inner workings of life and the universe shout out of an intelligence we can only scratch the surface of.

H.    Just as Jesus has a plan for creation, he has a plan for our lives. And if his design of life and the universe is somehow unintelligible, then how can we trust that he will communicate with us?

III.   If Jesus Is not the Creator, He’s not the Savior Acts 17:24-31

A.    In Athens, Paul was invited to speak to the Greek philosophers at Mars Hill. In declaring the identity of the “Unknown God” they were worshiping in ignorance, he begins by establishing that the God of the Bible is the Supreme Creator of us all.

B.     Why start here? Only the Creator has the authority to act also as Redeemer. Paul later equates this Creator with the Man who calls us all to repentance, will judge all men and women, and was raised from the dead.

C.     Paul knew the stories of creation in the Greek pantheon of gods. The world was an accident. The Greek gods had no power or authority to rescue humanity. But the Sovereign Creator of all that exists has both power and authority.

D.    The atheist knows that “if humankind evolved by Darwinian natural selection, genetic chance and environmental necessity, not God, made the species.” [4] If true, we have only ourselves to solve our problems, only ourselves to atone for our offenses, and only ourselves to find meaning in life. All three are hollow deception or impossible without God.

E.     The raging debate around the world over the sufficiency of an unplanned, purposeless process as creator or the personal Creator God of the Scriptures is truly a battle for the hearts and minds and souls of men. We cannot be complacent. We cannot be apathetic. There are no sidelines for anyone to sit and watch. There are no seats for spectators in the stands, this involves us all. To sit back and watch is to be trampled as the game plays on, a deadly game where our children are most at risk.

F.      So let’s follow Paul’s advice to first see to it that we are not taken captive by this empty philosophy that is according to men (Colossians 2:8), but to tear down strongholds that have raised themselves up against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).