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Apr 23, 2023

First Look

First Look

Passage: Genesis 1:1-2:3

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: That’s the Spirit: Learning to keep in step with Him who indwells

Keywords: spirit, form, breath, fill, create

One temptation of the modern church’s quest to follow Jesus is to prioritize precision about following to the obscuring of the power for it. That is, it is one thing to have the knowledge of the Son–quite another to have any help for following Him. When you turn to the power, the help, the comfort we need to follow Jesus, you’re now talking about the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? What is the Spirit’s work, as distinct from, but also in concert with the Father and the Son? Why does the Spirit matter? We begin a new series asking these questions, all so we can get an answer to one question: what does it mean to keep “in step” with the Spirit who “indwells” those who belong to God? To begin to find an answer to that foundational question we need to go back to the beginning of the record of the Spirit’s presence and effort.

*Do you have questions related to the sermon series about the Holy Spirit? Contact us at


Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Isaiah 42:5-6, 8. 10
LEADER: Thus says God, the LORD,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
“I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness;
I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,

I am the LORD; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.

ALL: Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise from the end of the earth,

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH/SCRIPTURE READING/CORPORATE PRAYER: Acts 17:22-31
LEADER: So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Acts 17:29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

CENTRAL TEXT: Genesis 1:1-2:3
Gen. 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Gen. 1:3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Gen. 1:6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

Gen. 1:9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

Gen. 1:11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

Gen. 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Gen. 1:20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

Gen. 1:24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Gen. 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And 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.”

Gen. 1:27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Gen. 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Gen. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

CONFESSION OF SIN:
ALL: We know we are dust and to dust we will return. But we confess how easily and how often we forget we are more than dust–and how this world is far more than we can see or fathom. Forgive us for reducing You, this world, and ourselves to little more than ideas and mechanics. Forgive us for taking on all you ask without trusting you for the Assistance we need. Restore to us a sense of the beauty and brilliance all around us–of everything, by your Spirit, your hands have made. And renew our sense that the peace we seek is found through the forgiveness bought by your Son, and the indwelling presence of your Spirit.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON Ephesians 1:7-8, 13-14
LEADER: In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.


ALL: Thanks be to God.

BENEDICTION: 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
LEADER: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

ALL: Amen

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Job 27:3
  • Job 33:4
  • Ecclesiastes 3:19-21
  • Isaiah 42:5
  • Acts 17:25
  • 2 Corinthians 13:14

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Dig deep here: can you remember a time when a thought became something more than a thought to you? That is, it became more vivid, more real, more powerful to your initial consideration? Maybe about a memory, or a person, or an experience? 
  2. Put your cards on the table with each other: name several things you think are true of the Holy Spirit–who He is, what He does, why He matters. (this is not a test…this is a survey). Can you point to experiences in which you have sensed His operation in your life? (Don’t worry if you’ve never thought about that before!) 
  3. Why is right belief about God and right action flowing from that belief still not enough for us? 
  4. Refresh your memory from the sermon: how do we see in the text the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters both “forming” and then “filling” what becomes Creation? Why do we see hints in Creation of the Tabernacle and Temple still to come? 
  5. What do you think it means that God the Father authors salvation (with the Son), the Son accomplishes salvation, and the Spirit applies salvation?
  6. What questions about the Holy Spirit linger with you? Where did those questions come from–just curiosity or experience or something else? Share them with each other (who knows–maybe someone in your circle has some tentative responses?), and then don’t forget to share them with us.

ILLUSTRATIONS:

QUOTES: 

  • The relationship of believers to the Holy Spirit is the most important experience of fellowship that they have, but it is also the most elusive. It requires careful cultivation until a habitual recognition of the Spirit is established as a constant attitude of the heart. Richard Lovelace
  • If it be a crime. . .to affirm that our minds stand in need of the renovation of the Holy Ghost, to enable them to understand spiritual things in a spiritual manner, we do acknowledge ourselves guilty thereof. John Owen
  • Ministers who are shaky about their own relationship to the Holy Spirit—and who among us are not?—should enter the project as a joint venture of discovery with their congregants, confident that everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds. Richard Lovelace

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