What are some of the greatest stories to make it to the silver screen: Gone with the Wind, The God Father, Star Wars. They all have what a great story has: strong characters, memorable lines, and heroic endings. Depending on the era, style and personal taste, the list is long and diverse.
May I add one story. It the longest running epic ever told. It has been projected on more screens than stars in the sky. It has never been made into a sequel, to date, but one is planned. (Date to be announced). The working title is: The Return. The lead has not been seen in more than 2,000years. The name of this film: The Seed. It is the greatest story ever told because of its star—Christ—and its impact on humanity—the defeat of evil.
The screenplay is found in Genesis. For fourteen weeks, we will review key scenes in the story that follows this logline: A true story, during the darkest time in creation, a God-man called “The Seed” faces His arch enemy who will do anything—infanticide, false prophets, murder, and betrayal—to stop the Seed from his mission: saving mankind from itself.
With so many dark stories of hopelessness, helplessness, death and destruction saturating our media and minds daily, you need a true story of hope for your spirit.
Turn to Genesis 1:1-3. It is the prologue of “The Seed—The Greatest Story Ever Told”. The author/protagonist is God who plays the role of Creator. The Antagonist is the dark angel who orchestrates chaos and confusion to thwart the mission of the Seed. The prologue sets the stage for the introduction of this Hero. And you will eventually have a role to play in this story either as a believer or a deceiver of the Seed.
If you want to have a role in the greatest story ever told as a believer, you, first, need to trust the Creator God because He is sovereign over all creation. Second, you need to trust the Creator God because He is sovereign over any chaos in creation. Third, you need to trust the Creator God whose sovereign Spirit can transform any chaos to cosmos, to bring order to disorder, to bring light where there is darkness. In the end, the choice you make will also bring to the big screen, the second greatest story to be told—your story as—The Sons of the Seed.
So, welcome to Genesis Cinema. Please silence your phones and open your eyes to a fresh look at the “greatest story ever old told.”
First, if you want to have a role in the greatest story ever told, you need to trust the Creator God who is sovereign over all creation. Our story opens with our narrator reciting one of the most famous lines ever scripted. (We couldn’t get Morgan Freeman.)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
What an opening line. It means God is sovereign. What does it mean to be sovereign? It means God is initiator, originator and complete creator. In a word—sovereign—in control.
First, God is initiator, before all things, He was—bereshit—before beginning. He initiated the first steps of the construction of creation. The writer of Genesis wants to make clear, that in a time when idols were prevalent, there is only one God, one general contractor of the universe. To behave otherwise is to practice idolatry, to believe there is someone else in charge. Not so. God—and God alone—is sovereign and in control.
Secondly, God is originator—creator of only that which is new, fresh and perfect. Bara always refers to divine active. Only God can make the claim “new” Everything else made by the hands of man is second hand, a Goodwill hand-me-down. So, too, are the idol gods we make of our careers, our relationships and our possessions.
Finally, God is a complete creator of the entire universe—of heaven and earth—and everything in between. Heaven and earth— shamayim erets—is a merism—two contrasting parts of the whole to refer to the whole. Nothing is out of His realm. He made hymns and hip hop; dinosaurs and do-rags; air and Air Jordans. The point is: the totality of His handiwork is unmatched, whole and complete.
Nothing is out of His realm, not even the cliffs of the Pacific Coast Highway. A family of four survived a 250 ft. plunge off the Devil’s slide, a notoriously dangerous section 20 miles south of San Francisco. Miraculously, the occupants escaped injury, but the orchestrator of the incident didn’t escape capture. It appears the crash was not an accident. God is sovereign over cliffs and crime. No one escapes His justice.
So, who are you going to trust: the initiator, originator and creator God who is sovereign, or a secondary, second hand, hand-me-down god? In this one line—"In the beginning God created heaven and earth”—is the unavoidable truth: God is sovereign over all creation to include your life, your church, your new year. Trust the Sovereign One, and His Son—the Seed—whom He will send to control even death. It is the greatest story ever told. And you can have a role as a believer. His story can be your story as the second greatest story ever told—The Sons of the Seed. It's a better offer than the God Father’s “an offer you can’t refuse.”
Second, trust the Creator God because God is sovereign over any chaos. Our narrator of the prologue continues in verse 2:
And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep…Gen.2a
Obviously, something happened from verse one to verse two to turn perfect cosmos into chaos. The Hebrews call this state of no form and no substance: Tohu (formless) vabohu (void).
That something that happened is possibly linked to the Isaiah14:12’s description of the free-will fall of the angel, Lucifer:
How you are fallen from heaven, O, [ Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You, who weakened the nations! Isa. 14:12
Along with the description in Ezekiel 28:16, the story goes that Lucifer, wanting to be God, didn’t get the memo that God is sovereign, God all by himself. So, God threw him out of heaven. Lucifer whose screen name is Satan fell. The logical inference is that he fell to a created place and corrupted it.
Darkness—hoshek—also fell over creation in this period of chaos, but God is sovereign over the darkness, as well. He was sovereign over the darkness of 9th Egyptian plague in Exodus 10.
21 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt-- darkness that can be felt." 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. Exodus 10:21-22
Darkness has always been associated with the chaos of creation, from plagues to pandemonium, murder to mayhem. The dark work of the dark angel has always been with us, even today, as seen in the deaths of the four Idaho college co-eds murdered, allegedly, by—of all people—a criminal justice major. But this kind of darkness is not beyond the sovereignty of God. With a tiny bit of DNA on the sheath of the murder weapon, a possible perpetrator was apprehended, and justice will be served.
Think of chaos as a bad morning-face day—things out of order—hair out of place, eyes puffy. But with a little make-up, some cosmetics, disorder turns to order; chaos turns to cosmos. All stories have an antagonist whose objective is to bring disorder to the protagonist’s order and purpose. So, it is with the antagonist, Satan’s role is to bring disorder to God’s order. But thank God, God and His Seed—who is also called Immanuel which means “God with us” is, in fact, with us in our most chaotic times.
Church, whatever emptiness, darkness and disorder you are facing, you can trust that He is sovereign over it. That’s where the Seed he will send comes in, to bring ultimate order to our ultimate disorder—sin. You can be part of that “greatest story ever told” as a believer of the Seed. In doing so His story is your story—the second greatest story as The Sons of the Seed whose chaos is transformed to cosmos because God is sovereign over the worse of our conditions. Unlike, Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, God … “does gives a darn.” (Pardon my French.)
Finally, trust the Creator God whose sovereign Spirit can transform chaos to cosmos and transition darkness to light. Our narrator concludes the Prologue this way:
…and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Gen. 2b,3
Where there is tohu vabohu and hoshek, there is also God’s Spirit—His Ruach, The Force—hovering over our chaos to do a new thing, to transform, rearrange, and “change the condition our condition is in” (to borrow from Song Writer Kenny Rogers). His Spirit is like the wingspan of an eagle, covering our chaos in care according to Deuteronomy 32:11:
"Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions. Deuteronomy 32:11
God’s Spirit has always been in a position to transform chaos into blessing.
· His Spirit brought life to dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley.
· God’s Spirit was in an upper room hovering over frightened disciples to empower them in Acts 2 to go out and change the world for the cause of Seed.
God’s Ruach, his Spirit hovers over us even today to take away darkness and bring light. When Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the football field last Thursday from a life-threatening heart attack, chaos and concern covered our collective hearts. But soon, Spirit-filled prayers hovered over the tragedy. Prayers and donations flooded in. A Go-Fund-Me page that supported Hamlin’s foundation to help kids went from $2,500 to seven million in a matter of days. Prayers continue to hover over him for his full recovery. His condition is moving in a positive direction.
Church, if it is dark where you are today, be of good cheer. God’s Spirit, like an eagle’s wing is hovering. That same Spirit will raise his Seed from death to life. But that is for future episodes of “Seed—The Greatest Story Ever told. Trust God’s sovereign Spirit, and let it be part of your role in the greatest story ever told so that your story will be the second greatest—the story of the Sons of the Seed. Better than Luke Skywalker’s force, a greater “force is with you.”
CONCLUSION:
If you want to have a role in the greatest story ever told, trust the Creator God who is sovereign over all creation. Second, trust the Creator God who is sovereign over any chaos, no matter how disorderly, empty and dark. Third, trust the Creator God whose sovereign Spirit that transforms chaos to cosmos, that transitions darkness with light. In the end, the choice you make will bring to the big screen the second greatest story ever to be told—your story with a blessed ending—as The Sons of the Seed.
Gone with the Wind, The God Father, and Star Wars are some of the greatest stories to make it to the silver screen. But what tops the top of list is “The Seed—the Greatest Story ever told”—the journey of God-man as the promised savior of all mankind. You have a role. Believe and be a part of its sequel: The Sons of the Seed. Coming soon to a theatre near you. (Date to be announced).
Until then,
“May the force be with you.”
Next week in our Genesis Series: The Promise: How did we got into this Mess in the First Place?
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