Introduction
At the beginning of the week, when I was thinking about what to preach on for these harvest services, I settled on the idea of speaking about God’s work of providence on Sunday morning and God’s work of creation on Sunday evening. And so, this morning we were thinking about the ways that God preserves and governs his creation. He upholds us and controls us; he sustains us and guides us. We were thinking about that this morning.
And then, as I began to think about what I might say about God’s work of creation on Sunday evening, it occurred to me that we started John’s gospel last Sunday and the third verse of John 1 is about God’s work of creation: ‘Through him [i.e. the Word of God] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.’ And so, I thought that, rather than interrupt a new series which I’ve only just begun, I’ll preach on that verse and use it as part of our harvest thanksgiving.
The reason there’s a harvest to celebrate is because in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and all that they contain. He made the dry land and all that grows on it and he gave these growing things to us for food. He also created and gave to us the creatures that live and move and are good for food. God created the earth and he filled it with good things for us to eat and to enjoy. And so, we give thanks to him for creating these things and for giving them to us.
Last week we spent our time on verses 1 and 2 of John 1, where John spoke about the Word, who was with God in the beginning and who was God. And we thought about why John might have used this title to refer to God the Son. And I said that it was an entirely fitting title for God the Son, because just as we use words to express ourselves, so God the Son is a perfect expression or revelation of who God is. God the Son perfectly expresses who God the Father is. A word comes from us and expresses who we are; and the Son comes from the Father eternally and expresses who he is.
And just as God’s word in the Old Testament was powerful and always accomplished God’s will and never returned to him empty, so God the Son powerfully accomplishes God’s will before returning to him. And so, the title ‘Word’ is entirely fitting for God the Son.
And then we thought about the Word in relation to God the Father. John said that the Word was with God in the beginning. But John then makes clear that the Word is not less than God. He’s not a lesser being than God. He’s not semi-divine. He is fully divine, because he himself is God. The Word is both with God as a distinct person and he is God.
And that’s because the one God we worship and adore is also three. There’s only one God, but the one God we worship and adore is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son. And the Son is not the Spirit. And the Spirit is not the Father. They are three distinct persons, but they have the one and the same divine being so that they are one God.
And in verses 1 and 2 John is writing about God in the beginning. He’s writing about God as he was in the beginning before there was anything else. Before there was anything else, before anything was created, before time and in eternity, there was this one God who is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And when John moves from verses 1 and 2 into verse 3 he’s moving from God as he was in the beginning before there was anything else to what God did in the beginning when he created the heavens and the earth.
The text
And so, John tells us in verse 3 that through the Word all things were made; and without him nothing was made that has been made.
John is saying the same thing in two different ways. Firstly, he’s telling us in a positive way that all things were made through the Word. And secondly, he’s telling us in a negative way that nothing was made without him. And we could paraphrase what he’s saying as follows: God the Father made all things through his Word; and without the Word God the Father did not make anything that has been made. Although he doesn’t mention God the Father by name, John is nevertheless referring to what God the Father did through his Son. So, God the Father made all things through his Son. And there’s nothing God the Father made without the Son.
In this way John is telling us that the Word is the Father’s co-creator. So, the Word is not part of the Father’s creation, because the Word created all things alongside God the Father. If there were a line with the creation on one side and God the Creator on the other side, then the Word of God is on the side of God the Creator. He’s the Father’s co-creator.
And so, in this one verse John is telling us about God and he’s telling us about what God did. And let’s take each of these two things in turn.
God
Let’s think about God first of all. A few years ago, when we did a series on the attributes of God at the midweek, we learned that God is a se. That is, he has all life in himself and he does not rely on anything or anyone outside of himself for anything. And he is simple in the sense that he cannot be divided into parts. And he’s impassible so that he cannot suffer and he’s not affected by anything outside of himself. And he’s unchangeable. And he knows all things and he can do all things and he’s present everywhere all at once. And he’s good and holy and just and true and eternal. We worked our way through all of these attributes. And then, the last attribute we thought about was God’s blessedness. That is to say, his happiness. Since God does not rely on anything outside of himself, since he is not affected by anything outside of himself, since he is unchangeable and since he knows all things and can do all things and so on, then he is infinitely and eternally and unchangeably happy.
We are not infinitely and eternally and unchangeable happy. There are always things which keep us from being happy like that. There are things nagging at the back of our mind which disturb our sense of peace and contentment. Little thoughts or memories or fears. There are memories of things we did which makes us feel shame or embarrassment. There are memories of things other people did to us which make us feel sad or angry. There are events which happened in the past, even long ago, which still affect us today. And then there are fears about the future; and those fears are always on our mind. And there’s that thing we have to do, which we’ve been putting off, but it really needs to happen and until it happens we can’t get any peace of mind. And then there are things which happen which spoil our plans and disappoint us. There are things we would like to do, but we can’t do them for whatever reason and we’re frustrated with ourselves and with our circumstances. There are people who upset us or hurt us or who annoy us.
There are all kinds of things which spoil our mood and keep us from being perfectly happy. But there’s nothing which can disturb God’s happiness. He is infinitely and eternally and unchangeably happy. He is above all worlds in the happy land of the Trinity.
And since God was perfectly happy without us, then there was no need for him to create us. He was perfectly happy without us. And therefore he did not need to make us. We can imagine God writing about himself: ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.’ And God could have stopped there and been perfectly happy for ever and for ever. He did not need to go on and do what we read in verse 3. God could have refrained from making the world and he wouldn’t have been any worse off or any less happy or less satisfied. He did not need to make us. He wasn’t lonely. He wasn’t bored. He wasn’t unfulfilled. He didn’t need something to do. He didn’t need us to worship him. He was infinitely happy without us.
And yet, he created the world and everything else. And he made us. He didn’t have to make us, but he did. He made us freely and not under compulsion. And as I’ve said before, that means that our existence is a gift. If I give you something freely, then it’s a gift from me to you. And God has given us our life as a gift. Out of his overflowing goodness and love, he has given us our life and he has placed us in this world which is filled with everything we need.
Think about the creation of Adam and how, before he created Adam, God created everything else so that the world was filled with every good thing Adam needed. God got everything ready for Adam before creating him. And once it was all ready, God made Adam. And then, when God noticed that Adam was lonely, God created Eve to be his companion. He didn’t say: ‘Haven’t I already done enough for you?’ No, he didn’t hesitate to give Adam what he needed. Out of his overflowing goodness and love, God gave Adam his life and he gave him everything he needed for life. And out of his overflowing goodness and love, he has given us everything we need: life and breath and every good thing we enjoy here on earth.
God is infinitely and eternally and unchangeably happy. The Father and his Word and his Spirit were eternally happy together. The Word was with the Father. The Spirit was with them too. God could have remained that way for ever and for ever and for all eternity. And he did not need to make us or give us life. But out of his overflowing goodness and love he made us. And God — who is perfectly and eternally happy — made us to share his happiness. The Father and the Son and the Spirit were perfectly happy. And they wanted to share their happiness with others. They didn’t have to. They didn’t need to. They weren’t forced to do it. Sometimes parents will force one child to share his sweets with his sibling. And the child does it reluctantly. But no one was forcing God to share his happiness with us. He did it freely and he did it because his goodness and love are overflowing. God is an overflowing, never-ending fountain of goodness and love. And he willed to pour out his goodness and love on us and to let us share his happiness.
And so, he made us and gave us our life. And he put the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden to hold out to Adam the promise of eternal life and eternal happiness in the presence of God for ever. And after Adam disobeyed God and forfeited for himself and for us the right to eat from the Tree of Life, God sent his Son into the world to do all things necessary to make peace between God and us; and to restore us to what we were meant to be; and to give us the hope of everlasting life in the presence of God where we will share God’s perfect happiness for ever and for ever.
God could have written verses 1 and 2 are stopped: ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. And they were perfectly happy.’ God could have written that and stopped. But out of his overflowing goodness and love, God went on to make all things including us so that we could share his happiness. This is our God. And this is why we should worship him.
What God did
Having thought about God and his overflowing goodness and love towards us, let’s now think about what God did through his Word. And according to John in verse 3, God, through his Word, made all things; without his Word, nothing was made that has been made. And let’s divide this into two parts. Let’s think about the act of creation itself. And then let’s think about how God created all things.
So, the act of creation itself. We often speak of God’s power and how he powerfully created all things. And while it’s true that God powerfully created all things, we should bear in mind that creating the heavens and the earth required no effort on God’s part. The Scriptures convey this to us in two ways. Firstly, it tells us that he made the universe just by speaking. So, listen to what it says in Psalm 33: ‘Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.’ That’s how easy it was for God to make all things. All he had to do was speak. He just had to say the word. But then secondly, the Scriptures tell us that he made the universe just by thinking. So, in Revelation 4 God is praised because he created all things by his will. In other words, he created all things by an act of will. All he had to do is will it and it was done. All he had to do was think of it and it was done. In order to convey to us just how easy it was for the Lord to make the heavens and the earth, it tells us that he created all things by thinking it and saying the word.
Compare that to what we see on TV when the Olympic Games are on. We see these weight-lifters with massive chests and massive legs and massive arms and they lift these massive weights. But as they’re lifting these weights, they’re puffing and blowing and snorting and shouting, because it’s a massive effort for them to lift these massive weights. Because they’re strong, they can lift weights that you and I can’t lift. But they can’t lift them easily. And when God created the heavens and the earth, it required no effort. He didn’t puff and blow and snort and shout. All he had to do was think it and say the word and it was done.
Or when we work, it involves movement. When I need to cut the lawn, I have to get up and go into the garage and wheel out the lawnmower. Then I have to go back with the lead and plug it in. Then I have to go up and down and up and down and up and down, stopping every so often to empty the mower. There’s all this movement and energy and effort. And at the end I need a drink, because I’m thirsty. And I need to sit down, because I’m tired. It takes effort and it involves movement. But the work of creating all things was effortless for God and he didn’t even have to move. He didn’t have to lift a finger. He only had to think it and say the word and it was done. That’s how great our God is. That how powerful he is. He’s so powerful, it took no effort on his part. When God made the universe through his Word it was required no effort.
Let’s now think about how God, through his Word, created all things. And when John tells us in verse 3 that God, through his Word, made all things, he means that God made all things from nothing. He made all things from nothing, because before he made all things, there was nothing. When we want to make something, we have to start with something. When we want to bake a cake, we need the ingredients and we need a bowl to mix it in and we need a tin to bake it in and we need an oven to cook it. We can’t start with nothing. We have to start with something. But God started with nothing.
And when we talk about creation from nothing we don’t mean creation out of God. The world does not emanate from God the way light emanates from the sun. That’s what some people believe: that the universe comes from God and is part of him. It flows from God. But that’s not what we mean when we talk about creation from nothing, because the Creator and his creation are distinct from one another. They are not the same, but are completely separate from one another.
And when we talk about creation from nothing, we mustn’t think that nothing is something. We mustn’t think that God started with a blob of stuff called nothing which he then turned into the world. No, he started with nothing. He started with absolutely nothing. He started with an absence. There really was nothing there.
This is so hard for us to take in and to grasp because it’s completely beyond our experience. We always have to start with something. We take it for granted that nothing comes from nothing. If there’s nothing there, then nothing will come from it. That’s the way the world works. If I start out with no money and no prospects, then nothing will come of it. And we also take it for granted that everything comes something. If I have some money, I can use it and get more money from it. If I have a seed, I can plant it and grow a tree. Everything comes from something and I can’t grow a tree or make money from nothing.
That’s our daily experience. But with God it is entirely different, because he started with nothing and by an act of will he made all things.
And since this is beyond our understanding, then we would not know about this if God did not reveal it to us in his word. No one would ever have worked this out, because it’s completely outside our experience. No one could imagine this. No one could conceive of this. Even Adam could not conceive of this, because by the time God created Adam, God had already filled the earth with everything Adam needed. Adam woke up to a world that had already been created. He never knew what nothing is. And we can’t imagine what nothing is, because God fills our lives with so many good things. And we can’t imagine how God made all things from nothing.
But God has revealed it to us. He has revealed to us that he began with nothing; and from nothing, he, through his Word, made all things. He has revealed this to us in Holy Scripture. And by his Spirit he persuades us to believe these things and to understand by faith that the universe was formed at God’s command.
And when we read Holy Scripture and when we read that God made all things from nothing, then we should fall down in worship and adoration, because he is so wonderful. He is so wonderful, because with no effort at all, he, through his Word, made all things from nothing.
Conclusion
When God made all things in the beginning, he was able to pronounce it good, even very good. It was very good because it matched what he willed. What I make is often disappointing, because what I make isn’t the same as what I wanted to make. I want to make dinner, but perhaps I can’t find the right ingredients and then I overcook one vegetable so that it’s soggy and I undercook another vegetable so that it’s hard. And the finished product is not what I intended it to be. But what God made matched what he willed perfectly. And therefore it was very good.
And when we spoiled his world because of our sin, what did he do? He sent his Only Begotten Son into the world to make peace between us by his life and death and resurrection. And then he sent his Spirit into our lives to restore us to what we were meant to be. He begins the process now, in this life, and he will complete it in the life to come, when we’ll come into the presence of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and we’ll behold him in his glory and we’ll become like him.
And so, instead of abandoning his creation, God is at work to restore it. And in the end, out of his overflowing goodness and love, he will share with us his happiness.
And since this is true, what should we do? Well, there’s only one thing to do, isn’t there? And it’s to worship God and to give thanks to him for his indescribable kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
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