Fall 2018 Series Wrap-Up

​The FBB Student Ministry wrapped up our Fall teaching series “In the Beginning.”  In January we will pick back up in Genesis with a series titled “A Nation Born.”   For now, we will cover the topic of Thankfulness next week and then after Thanksgiving we will start our Christmas series “Good News Great Joy.”  Our Christmas series will focus on the first couple chapters of the book of Luke. 
 
This Fall we covered five major stories/topics that are found in the beginning of the book of Genesis. 
 

1. Creation
2. Marriage 
3. The Fall of Man
4. Noah and the Ark
5. The Tower of Babel

 
 
Creation
The first week of our series we covered the story of creation.  We talked about how the triune God created everything in six literal 24 hour days and that on the seventh day He rested.  He rested not because he was tiered but because He was finished and also to set a precedent of work and rest in our own lives.  We covered that God is triune. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all three have distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.  The last thing we covered was that God created Man in His own image and that God gave man dominion over the rest of creation. 
 
Marriage
The second week of our series we covered God’s design for marriage.  In Genesis chapter two God shows us exactly what he intends for marriage.  After creating Adam, God saw that it wasn’t right for man to be alone, so He created a Woman.  God did not create another man, he did not create multiple women to be with Adam, God created one woman.  We then turned to Ephesians chapter 5 to look at how God set up marriage this way because marriage is a representation of the Gospel.  Wives are to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, this kind of love is sacrificial and unconditional. God’s plan for marriage is one man and one woman for life.
 
The Fall of Man
The third message in our series focused on the moment that sin and death entered the world. God gave a couple commands to Adam in the beginning.  He told him to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth, and to steward creation. He also told him one thing He was not supposed to do and that was eat from tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  However, in Genesis chapter three Satan comes in the form of a serpent and tempts Eve into eating the fruit of the tree by lying about what God had said.  Adam who was with her also buys the lie that Satan tells and eats from the tree.  In that moment humanity and all of creation became infected with sin.  However, God in His love and kindness did not destroy man but instead showed grace and mercy. In Genesis 3:15 we find the Protoevangelium, the first mention of the Gospel in Scripture.  God tells Satan that one day woman will give birth to a Child who would crush the head of Satan while Satan will only bruise the Child’s heel.  We know that this was speaking of Jesus’ death burial and resurrection for the salvation of mankind.  Genesis 3 tells us of the really bad news that makes the Good News (The Gospel) really GOOD! 
 
Noah and the Ark 
In the fourth message of our series we saw the spread of sin and wickedness as man began to multiply on the earth.  The thoughts of mankind were only evil continually.  God decided to destroy all mankind, but a man named Noah found favor with God and so God decided once again to show grace and mercy to mankind.  God told Noah that He was going to flood the earth to destroy everything, so God told Noah to build an Ark. Noah did this and just as God told him a flood came and destroyed everything.  Only eight people would survive the flood, Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives.  After surviving the flood God would give Noah the same command He gave Adam, to be fruitful and multiply, and to subdue the earth. 
 
The Tower of Babel
The final message of our series focused on the story of the Tower of Babel.  One of the primary issues in the tower of babel is that the people had decided that they would stay in one city.  The people decided against subduing the earth. To quote they said “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”  (Genesis 11:4 NASB emphasis added) This is in direct violation of God’s command to subdue the earth.  God in His loving kindness confuses the language of the people which causes the people to scatter.  God’s command to be fruitful and multiply and to subdue the earth translates to the church today to the Great Commission.  We are called to make disciples of every nation.  Sadly, many churches choose to build a church for themselves, focused on their own preferences and comforts, instead of focusing on reaching out to a lost and dying world with the Gospel.  Just like with the tower of babel God is not pleased with this disobedience and these churches end up either repenting or closing.  Heed the warning of the tower of babel, the gospel will go to the ends of the earth, will we willfully and joyfully do our part in the great commission, or will we squander the time we have on earth fighting for our own comfort and preferences.  
 
Two major things I want students to know from this series. One is that God is kind, loving, and full of grace.  We do stupid stuff all the time. We sin constantly.  During the time of Noah, God said that man’s heart was wicked, that truth has not changed.  Man’s heart is wicked and because of that even those who know Christ do and think horrible and evil things.  But Praise God for His abundant grace and mercy towards us. Praise God that He has made a way of salvation for us. Praise God that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NASB).
 
The second major thing is that we are called to share this message.  God’s command in the beginning to be fruitful and multiply translates to the Great Commission today.  It is our privilege and JOY to share the gospel.  The fact that the star breathing God of the universe would make us His ambassadors to make known His great gospel in the earth is incredible.  He who has ALL authority in heaven and earth is with us always even to the end of the age in this journey and calling. There is no excuse for disobeying the command to go and make disciples of all nations.  It is joy for us to obey!