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Call to worship: Psalm 8

Text: Genesis 1:26-2:3

Summary:

Out of His love and the counsel of His own will, the everlasting God created Man. It's the pinnacle of creation. The world was made for the impending and finally everlasting fellowship between humanity and our Creator. To that end, we are made uniquely, in God's image and for God's glory in the advance of His Kingdom over all the world. We were given a delegated sovereignty for a missionary work, not to be a labor, but a testament to and collaboration of God's love for us and our love for Him. With humanity in place, the God of purpose authors a seventh day. On it, and as both a pattern for us in this world and the type of another World, God rests from His strictly creative activity. 'It is finished.' God has done it. Humanity is given to revel in it; and as in creation, so also in redemption. What we failed to obtain by sin, the Son obtained for us by becoming 'the Man.' In Christ, rest is restored, and our final and forever destination reestablished: new creation.

Sermon Outline:

1. God's special creation of humanity. (1:26-27)
2. God's global commission to humanity. (1:28-31)
3. God's restful destination for humanity. (2:1-3)

Prepare

Discussion Questions:

1. Read Genesis 1:26-2:3.
2. How does Moses set off the creation of humanity from everything else that He has made? What do the verses, 1:26-27, teach us about what it means to be made in the image of God? What does the rest of the Bible make plain about the use of the plural within the counsel of God? Is there any indication in 1:27 about who was created first, and why would that be? Does whether one is male or female have any bearing on their bearing the image of God?
3. Moses goes further with one aspect of the imago Dei in 1:28-30 (first mentioned in 1:26b). It's called a blessing of God in 1:28. What is it? To whom is it given? What does procreation have to do with it? What does dominion have to do with it? What's the relationship between the image of God in Man and the God-given office or task of Man? Does our exercise of dominion mean that we're free from God's Lordship? What are you aiming to bring under the government and influence of God's Kingdom and glory? What's God's evaluation of creation in its totality (1:31)?
4. What are the repetitive themes in 2:1-3? What does it mean that God rested? When He might not have, why does God set yet another day (though without the refrain, 'evening and morning') for rest? What's the relationship between relationship to God, work for God, and rest in God? Why is the refrain, mentioned above, not here? How does the Bible develop the theme of Rest or Sabbath in, say, Psalm 95:11 and Hebrews 4? What we were created to be working toward?
5. How did Adam and Eve fair? How do the themes of special image, global commission, and restful destination come together in the second Adam, Jesus Christ? How was all this ultimately designed for Him (Ps 8; Heb 2)? How is it that a sinner can be restored, now and forever, to God's image, His task, and everlasting Rest? How is the local church a display of God's original purpose?