And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
14 sermons cite this verse
… everything. His economy is linked directly to his voice, which is not only all-powerful, it is creative in nature. And God spoke, let there be light, and there was light. He spoke things into being. We know that when he speaks to us today, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So his design is that everything would happen through the voice of his word. In John 16, the very next chapter, Jesus describes how he has re-inherited everything. The Father has given everything back into his hands, which is fascinating because he forfeited everything as God to become a man. Now, he's still 100% God, so some people misunderstand me at this point. He's entirely God, but he takes on flesh and chooses to live with the restrictions of a human being, of a person, although he's eternally God. But in that position, as a man now, he re-inherits everything. He already had everything as God, but now he inherits everything as man. Why? Because he's our elder brother and he now gets to include us in the inheritance. And in John 16, he says, Jesus announces all that the father has is mine. …
… cannot be separated. The very beginning of the universe is as a result of God speaking. He said, Let there be light. And there was light. Timothy Ward says, The Old Testament assumes that God can and does speak in and through human words in such a way that those words can truly be said to be his words. Now, it's true that the Bible doesn't tease this out. The Bible does not even provide for us a theological or a philosophical explanation of this. It just says it. It just assumes it. And anybody standing on the outside looking in might say, but I find that very, very hard to believe, and understandably so. But when a man or a woman begins to read the Bible, begins to consider it, they will find, if their hearts are open to it truly, that the Bible, in their endeavors to understand it, is actually proving to understand them. That this book is no ordinary book. That it isn't like any other book at all. …
… and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning. One day. Then God said, let there be an expanse between the waters, a canopy and let it separate water from water. So God made the canopy, and He separated the waters under the canopy from the waters that were above the canopy. And it was so. God called this canopy the heavens. And there was evening and there was morning a second day. Then God said, And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathered waters He called seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants bearing seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with the seed in it, each according to its kind. …
… and the spirit covered the deep and God said, let there be light and none of that chaos stopped him from being able to move. He moved anyway. The dry bones were scattered all over the valley and he said, speak to the bones and he spoke to the bones and the bones start jumping to each other's bones and connecting together. God can do that for you. See, when I read my Bible, I take it out of a historical context and begin to understand this is food for my right now. Are you with me? Anybody else coming? Anybody else coming? Thank you. Come on. Come on. I'm going to be in the gathering. I'm going to be in the gathering. We're going to be in the gathering. I'm going to get in the gathering. I'm going to stomp my feet in the place where the word was preached. Leave my footprint on Pentecost. Let the anointing of the Holy Ghost fall. Hallelujah. He told Abraham, everywhere your feet trod, I'll give it to you. …
… over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light and there was light. Before there could be creating, there had to be calming and that calming came as a result of the Spirit of God. So the Old Testament begins with this image of a hovering, settling presence, the Holy Spirit. The New Testament, how fitting, does something similar. Early in the pages of each gospel, we see a picture, a portrayal of the Holy Spirit, not as an eagle, but as a dove. then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him and John tried to prevent him saying I need to be baptized by you and you are coming to me but Jesus answered and said to him permit it to be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness then he allowed him when he had been baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were opened to him and he saw what church the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him John the Baptist did his best to talk his cousin out of the baptism seeking to reverse the roles, but Jesus would have none of it. …
… and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light, and there was light. By the way, this is fun. The light that God created over the physical universe predates the creation of the sun. Why? Why? God is light. awesome, remarkable considering the awe of God we're going to go through some things you guys okay, you ready for this? Job chapter 28 you can't talk about the awe of God without going to the book of Job and for good reason you know, poor Job you know, we say poor Job and none of us would want to go through what he went through but we want to be as close to God as he was but without paying the price of course God used the man Job because he could he was usable to teach Satan a lesson every time I think about the book of Job I have to ask myself how willing am I to be a true witness for God in anything If God were to ask us this morning, do you love me? …
… The Bible says he spoke the worlds into being. Let there be light and there was light. He spoke things into being. Secondly, the Bible says that all things are held together by the word of his power. So his abiding, prevailing word actually holds every molecule in place. It's the glue that holds everything in place. thirdly we know that he sustains us and brings life to us with his voice again back to the it's the only book you can read that the author shows up when you read it because he sustains us with his word Paul said in Romans, the faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It doesn't say faith comes from hearing the word of God. I'm not saying that's bad or wrong. I'm just saying it's not what it says. If faith came from hearing the word of God, we should all get Bible apps on our phone and just play scripture 24-7 and we'd be like Wigglesworth by Friday or Father Abraham or somebody. …
… More to it, they create reality. God said, let there be light, and there was light. God said, let the dry land come forth, and so it happened. God's word, as Isaiah said, it goes forth from me and does not return without accomplishing its purpose. Who is Jesus? He's not just one more Jeremiah or one more Jonah or Isaiah. He's the word made flesh, St. John told us in the prologue to his gospel. And so when he says, Lazarus come out, by God, the dead man came out. It's through the power of his word that things change and things happen. Same is true of us, everybody. Sin is always a kind of death, wrapped us up like we're wrapped up in burial cloths. I don't care how dead you feel. Look, I've been dead for four days. I'm well and truly dead. Lord, no way. You can't reach me. I'm beyond hope. No, no, forget it. Lazarus come out, and the dead man came out. I don't care how dead you feel. …
… Where's the word at creation? Well, he spoke, let there be light and there was light. Well, where's the Spirit? Well, it tells us right there in the opening verses, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the deep, brooding over the deep, overshadowing the creation, coming into being through word and Spirit. This is Genesis language. to tell us that this child is going to be a new Adam, a new creation by divine fiat. Like the Spirit hovering over creation, new life will be formed in Mary. This is not a biological explanation. It is a spiritual explanation. Let there be light. There was light. Let there be a child. There's a child. A new humanity has begun. unless you ask yourself, well, could Jesus be fully human without a human mother and a human father? Well, we've had people in the Bible before who had no human mother or human father. You know their names, Adam and Eve, and they were fully human. This is a normal human gestation on one level, zygote and cells splitting and multiplying and body parts being formed. …
… And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. So thus begins creation as God speaks, and he forms light and darkness. And then the sun and moon and stars, the skies, the land, water, fish, birds, animals. And then after all that, jump to verse 26. We read, then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Now turn over to Genesis chapter 2. So starting in verse 5, we see a parallel account of how God created man. Eden in the east. And there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that's pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden, which by the way, Eden means delight. So this garden of delight, a river flowed out of it to water the garden. And there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the …
… covered the face of the deep, while the wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness and called the light day and the darkness night. and there was evening and there was morning the first day and God said let there be a dome in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters so God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome and it was so God called the dome sky and there was evening and there was morning the second day and God said let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear and it was so God called the dry land earth and the waters that were gathered together he called seas and God saw that it was good. …
… and darkness covered the face of the deep God said, let there be light and there was light. God can make something out of nothing. Grandma said he's a way maker. He can make a way out of no way and somebody knows what I'm talking about because like the disciples, oh, you were part of a ragtag crew yourself. You might still be part of one up to no good in the neighborhood. there was a bullet with somebody's name on it in here. Maybe you were strung out or maybe you were thrown out or maybe you were kicked out or maybe you were just out of your mind, out of a job, out of control, out of money, out of answers. But somehow God saw fit to spare your life and to lead your feet to the house of prayer. I don't know what you are up against today, but God has chosen you. But Jesus didn't stop there. See, Jesus didn't just choose the disciples. The text tells us that after choosing them, he gave them this ragtag crew. …
… and that created a problem. See, in Genesis, all God had to do was say, let there be light, and there was light. God had to say let there be water, and there was water. God had to say let there be animal life, and there was animal life. But why is it that God couldn't just say let there be forgiveness? why do we know from the Bible that it took him thousands of years in the fullness of time, when the time was ready, his son had to come to earth, and in a very carefully laid out plan, had to be put to death for our sins. That proves that even though God is loving, he's holy, which means, on the one hand, if God's not a holy, perfect judge, there's no hope for the universe because there's no solution for evil. But if God is a holy, perfect judge, then there's no hope for us. Unless payment was made, and on the cross, both the holiness and love of God were perfectly, they perfectly joined, they shined forth. …
… that forgiveness, for God to forgive us, was one of the greatest problems, if not the greatest problem that he ever faced. God could say, let there be light, and there was light. God could say, let there be water, and there was water. God could say, let there be animals and men and women, and there could be animals and men and women, but he couldn't say, let there be forgiveness. In the same way that you just can't pardon every murderer because that's the end of the social reality. You can't forgive somebody for breaking the law of God because it's an offense against the cosmic law of God. Do you see the problem? if you don't see the problem, if you don't see that forgiveness is a terrific difficulty for God, that he had to take thousands of years to set things up so his son could come and die and pay the penalty, if you don't see that, you will never be transformed by the gospel and the Christian message. I hear people saying, well, if God's a God of love, why doesn't he just forgive us? Because God's also a God of holiness. If he's not a holy God, what hope is there for the universe and for you. But on the other hand, if he is a holy God, what hope is there for us sinners? …