THE CREATION

By Peter Fong

Oct. 25^th 1998

Readings for today: Gen.1:1-3, 24-31a Col. 1:15-20 John 1:1 -14

Many of you who were here on the Day of Pentecost may remember that I did share a message. I spoke on the subject of Pentecost and touched slightly on the subject of hell. If I may, I like to continue from here. I know, the very mention of hell is very unpleasant. As Christians we should know what it is. It is as we know a place prepared for Satan. Jesus give us His Word to follow so that we could avoid co-existing with Satan in a place which is not meant for us.

So, this morning’s message is a sequel to the early message that I shared on the Day of Pentecost. Since the subject of hell is so unpleasant, the one and only alternative that we have is to head for the kingdom of heaven.

Remember what Jesus says ,"not every one who says to me Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the Will of my Father who is in heaven."

The question is how do we know the Will of our Father who art in heaven.? In the same token, how do we know what my earthly father wants from me unless I communicate with him. The way I know what my heavenly Father wants from me is by reading His Word. In John’s Gospel we read this morning, it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We know that the Word is Jesus Himself . Jesus is the everlasting life and therefore his Word is everlasting.

And so, if we want to head for God’s kingdom we look for the Word. The Word of God is sweater than honey, at least many Christiansbelieve and experience it for themselves but not all would agree. How often do we hear that the Sunday Service is boring and the bible scripture is so uninteresting. I have even heard others complaining during my outreach that they have read the bible from Genesis to Revelation many times and it has not changed them a bit. I must admit that I felt the same when I was a young Christian --too worldly and so engrossed with worldly things. 

And so, this morning I want to talk about something interesting and with the permission of the Padres, I will keep away the bible for a little while. For a long, long time, I have not taken a plate of Char Koay Teow - Penang famous fried noodles. And so the other day I was tempted to have one small plate. I told the hawker to use vegetable oil instead of lard and egg without the yoke. But it taste lousy. A plate of Char Koay Teow from the same wok and fried by the same hawker, yet each plate taste differently by different people.

Some likes it hot, others complain too oily and still others complain to much of bean sprout or too little of cockles. There are others who like it the way it is being fried. In the same token, the Word of God from the same bible means differently to different people at different times depending upon the circumstances of our life. The Word of God in the bible cannot be, therefore, historical or ancient, rather modern because the bible speaks to people of all ages, at different levels of their life and in different circumstances.

If we read a message in the bible we should analyse it the way we analyse the taste of a plate of Char Koay Teow. It has a message for the reader the way God wants it to be. And if we learn to understand God’s word for us each time we ** read passage from the bible and try to understand what it means to us at the ** time of reading it, we soon find that the Word of God is sweater than honey. If we take time and pain to analyse a passage in the same way we take pleasure in enjoying a plate of Char Keoy Teow, we will soon find joy in finding God’s Will in our reading. 

Every Sunday there are three readings and the readings carry a message for us from God. Try to catch the message or we may miss what God has in store for us. So, let us look into the bible again. This morning we have three scripture readings focusing on creation and Jesus Christ the Creator.

In each of these readings we learn that God is the Creator of the universe, the earth and the world therein. The subject on creation is a very sensitive issue. The Buddhists believe that the earth was created through a process of cause and effect ,yet others believe the Darwin’s doctrine of evolution of species. But what do we as Christians believe? This is a challenge. What does God want to tell us this morning?

The Old Testament reading this morning reminds us of our fundamental belief that God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and we cannot begin to understand the Bible’s teaching about God unless we see him as the Creator of all things.

This was the problem Paul had with the Colossian Church. There were false teachers in the Colossian church who believes that God would not have come to earth as a true human being in bodily form. Paul in his letter to the Colossian as we read it this morning emphasises the belief that Christ is the first born of all recreation for in him all things were created.

God is love and love is best expressed toward something or someone else- so God created the world and the people as an expression of His love. He created all things beautiful and the planting of the garden of Eden was for the benefit of His people an expression of His love. Everything is provided for in this garden of Paradise. Of all God’s creation, plants, animals and human being, God chooses to have fellowship with human. God chooses to live with men in the life of Jesus Christ.

God in His perfect nature did not and could not bring Himself to forewarn Adam and Eve about the possibility of Satan confronting them in the garden of Eden. As Christians is it wrong for us to take for granted when our life is

in perfect order? Or are to exercise our human wisdom which God has given us, to take precaution against unforeseen circumstances or against the least expected surprises.

So, let me go beyond the story of creation in Genesis chap.1 into the garden of Eden (chap.2) which is part of God’s creation, to learn a lessen from Adam & Eve.

We learn that God creates all things beautiful.

On the contrary Satan creates destruction.

Adam & Eve at the cross road took the wrong turn and yielded to temptation.

As Christians we are dedicated to do the will of God by following His ways - to be the agents of creation. God wants us to create goodwill among men. God wants us to create understanding, joy and trust. God does not want us to create ill-feeling among men. God wants us to avoid to be the character of Satan who goes about injecting poison into the minds of fellow being - causing them to fall from grace as Satan did in the garden of Eden. God does not want us to be a stumbling block to our fellow brothers and sisters. God wants us to create all things beautiful following the teachings of Jesus Christ - the Creator.

When we speak, God wants us to speak words of comfort. When we feel, God wants us to feel with feeling of compassion. When we see, God wants us to see the things from God’s point of view. We learn from this morning’s passage a lessen that God does not want us to act in contrast to His nature. His will is not to do evil. Because of the evil Satan did, Adam & Eve were condemned to die and Satan condemned to hell. Because of one single mistake made by Adam & Eve for being disobedient, men of all ages are condemned to die. Because of one single evil deed committed by Satan, the whole world became topsy-turvy.

The character of Adam & Eve reminds us that we should be obedient to his word if we do not want to fall into the same trap. We should continue to pray for discernment and build a barrier between us and Satan –do not be unequally yoked but break down the barrier between God and us through our daily communication with him.

Coming back to Paul’s letter to the Colossian church where he says "through Him (Jesus) to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." Why is it necessary for Jesus to reconcile all men to himself and cause God to send his only forgotten Son into the world to be crucified and that the world might be saved through him by His death.? All these happened because of one single original sin in the garden of Eden. Satan

was very subtle, cunning and very strategic in executing his evil plan. He approached Eve and not Adam. Probably, he thinks that women are more naïve and he was proven right in the garden of Eden.

Adam & Eve had been fooled once by Satan and it is logical to believe that in or any soul with traces of that nature will not be allowed in. I can imagine probably there will be a security check point - probably monitor by St.Peter at the gate of heaven - to ensure that no such personality ever infiltrate into Paradise to create havoc once again.

What happens around us in this modern age is also a lessen to learn and the security check at all airports is something for us to meditate upon that no agent of destruction should enter into the airplane.

Once again how can we be sure that we are on course in our journey towards God’s kingdom.

There is another episode in my life which I like to share. Being a young a Christian in my early life, I never knew the word of God. At least now, I know a little. I didn’t know what is right and wrong. The light of Jesus was not in me. But the fact remains that I am a God fearing man. I was searching and God is his mercy leads me to His word. I read the word of God and never understood it. There was this message that appears to me very often . Matt.7 v 21. It says:" Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." After reading this message for a number of times, I begin to search deeper and after years of leading a Christian life, I come to a conclusion that those who earnestly searching Him, the Holy Spirit will help him to develop a spiritual life.

As each of us grows older each year, soon we are closer to the end than the beginning. All the more, we should be closer to God and if God is in us as the Holy Spirit leads us to Him we are already in heaven even before the end begins for heaven is where God is. Amen.