Daniel Whyte III
The purpose of this time together is to teach young believers everything they need to know about their faith in Jesus Christ and provide them with the knowledge they need to live victorious Christian lives.
Our key Bible passage today is Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Our lesson today is titled “Creation: In the Beginning (Part 1)”
Have you ever wondered why the first book in the Bible is called Genesis? Well, the word “genesis” means “beginning,” and the book of Genesis is the story of beginnings. It tells us of the beginning of the universe, the beginning of the earth, and the beginning of the human race. However, the book of Genesis does not tell us about the beginning of God. The reason for this is that God had no beginning.
GOD has always existed! God existed in all His power and glory before a single thing in the universe was created. The Bible says, “In the beginning God ….” Before the beginning of anything God was there. How long has God existed? He has always existed. How long will God continue to exist? He will always exist. The Bible says, “from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
1. First, let’s look at the creation of the universe. The Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” We live in a fantastic universe. Our sun is so large that it could contain a million worlds the size of our earth. And there are stars in space so large that they could easily hold 500 million suns the size of ours. The giant star, Antares, is said to be so large that if it were a hollow ball and the sun and earth were put inside it, the earth could continue its orbit around the sun and never come even halfway to the outer edge of Antares!
So precise is the clockwork of the heavens that we can foretell an eclipse or the visit of a comet years in advance. And we can know with mathematical precision the position of any given star at any moment of time.
Such order and precision are not the products of chance. There had to be some incredible power to bring such stars into being, and there has to be an incredible power to control them.
How did the universe come into being? God created it! Although many ideas have been presented as to how the universe came into being, no one really knows except God. He is the only one who can tell us about it.
The majestic statement in Genesis 1:1 reveals God as the Creator of the heavens and the earth at some unknown time in the past. How did God create the heavens and the earth? He created them by His word! Psalm 33:6 says, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”
God’s word is powerful! God’s word is also creative, that is, it brings into being that which it commands. Psalm 33:9 says, “For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”
God spoke and the heavenly bodies came into being. He commanded, and they stood fast in the paths which He planned for them.
Not only did God create all things, but He also controls them by His mighty power. The Bible says that He upholds all things “by the word of His power.”
How do we know these things? We know them by faith in God’s word. Hebrews 11:3 says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God…”
The account of creation given to us in the Bible is brief, yet God has told us everything we need to know about the beginning of the universe.
