The theme of this afternoon's sermon is "So who made God?" Imagine a Sunday School where one of the Sunday School teachers reads these words from the Bible: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then she explains how God made the world, the plants, the animals and people. But then a little boy puts his hand up. "Miss, did God make everything?" "Yes, he did George." "Well who made God then?" That's our basic question for this afternoon.
However, as we think about that, we'll expand the idea a little. We'll aim also to deal with the related question: "What is God like?" Sometimes people like to ask that question in a frivolous way saying things like "So is God a man or a woman then?" But the question itself, is an important one: what is God like?
In response let me start with a some observations about ourselves. Human beings like to think that everything comes from somewhere. We are always asking questions like "how did this happen?" and "where did this come from?" If I come back home after an evening out and find one of the windows in my house has been smashed, I don't just tidy up the mess. I ask myself "Who has done this?" We like to probe backwards and know what has caused things to be like this. Yes there are sometimes reasons: I want to know who broke my window so that the police can catch the thief. But even when there is no obvious immediate benefit, we still like to ask these questions - that's why we teach history in our schools.
We do this on a small scale, and we also do this on a grand scale, examining the universe. In so doing astronomers claim to have discovered two important things: that the universe is expanding and cooling. And then they've moved on to say, "what does this tell us about the universe in the past?" From this data the theory which we know as the "big bang" has been developed. Once there was a single point – I've seen it described as an infinitely compact fireball – which went into massive expansion and threw out all that we know today as the universe. And many people in our society are fascinated by that thought because we like probing backwards and seeing where things comes from.How far back does the chain go?
We like to trace the chain of events backwards and backwards and backwards. But once you start doing that, then you end up with a problem. It's this: you never know when to stop. Does the chain of events ever come to an end or does it go on and on for ever? Can you be forever saying of the next thing down the line, "What caused this to happen?" Some people, admittedly, ignore the problem. They just say "I don't know" or even "I don't care". But if we're true to what we're like, then we do, like little George, keep asking the question: "Where did this come from?" But it does leave us with this problem of when to stop, and we'll come back to that later.
But next, let me make this point: I think this characteristic shows that all of us believe in some sort of god. You see, at the end of the day everyone is left with something eternal and all-powerful - something that is always there and something which can produce everything else.
Imagine someone who denies there is anybody or anything called god. The only things which are real, are those physical things which he can examine like the universe,the world, trees and dogs. Only things which are part of the physical system are real. But then you start to track back through events with him until he tells you about this infinitely dense point which is the source of the Big Bang. But what's the inevitable question that you then ask? "Where did this point come from?"
Maybe he would say: "it came out of nothing". But then you ask: "well where did this powerful nothingness come from which can create an infinitely dense fireball?"
Maybe he would say: "it came from something else which we can't understand". But then you ask: "Where did this powerful something else come from which can create the point which produced the Big Bang?"
And in the end this man will have to say: "Something has just always existed. The only question is what that something has been like. Today it is like this: the universe. Prior to that it was different: it was an infinitely dense point packed full of burning energy. Prior to that: who knows? Maybe we'll never know."
This man believes in a god. He may refuse to call his belief "god". But he believes that there is something which has always-been-there and which has had the power to produce what is here today. Human beings can't do otherwise because we all ask the question: "where did this come from?"
But let's now return to the problem I mentioned: how far back can we really go with our questions?
For example, I've talked about scientists who tell us that they can go back billions of years and explain this universe. But in fact they can only speculate, because they weren't there.
Let me illustrate their difficulty. Imagine you're with me when I discover a break-in at my house, and I ask you to check upstairs. In my study you discover papers from the filing cabinet all over the floor and where my computer should be, there are just wires. So you rush downstairs and say "It's dreadful. The thieves have stolen your computer and rifled through your filing cabinet. They left the room in a mess."
But I then go a little red and reply "Actually they haven't stolen the computer. It's at the shop. It broke down earlier today so I took it round for them to look at it. However, they insisted that before they'd mend it I had to bring in my warranty card and receipt proving that I'd bought it last year. So I dashed back home to get it, but - of course! - I couldn't find it, so I took all the files out of the filing cabinet and tipped them out whilst I hunted for it. Then I was so anxious, because I wanted the computer to be mended, that I just left the papers everywhere and didn't have time to tidy up before going out."
Do you see the difficulty? The evidence you can see has lead you to believe one particular theory of what's happened. But you've been lead astray because you don't know what my study was like earlier. You can only see the study as it is now. What if the universe is like that? What if there is a God who made the universe as it is today, in the twinkling of an eye? What if he simply made it vast but then designed it to keep expanding? Well a scientist can come along and say "oh look the universe is expanding, so once upon a time it must have been infinitely small and by going backwards I can tell you how old it is." But that would just be a fairytale because he doesn't know the beginning. He can only see the way things are today.
And this problem only gets worse the more time you give it. Imagine I never returned to my house for one hundred years. What would other people make of my study, the day they entered it? What if it wasn't a hundred years but a thousand years? What about one million years?
Cosmologists currently estimate the age of the universe to be between 12 and 14 billion years. How do they know this? From observations and calculations that little creatures, in one tiny part of the universe, have made during an amazingly small amount of time. Creatures who weren't there at the beginning. Their ideas are pure speculation.
Which brings me to my final point which follows on from this. Is there, then, any way in which we can know some information about this all-powerful and eternal something? And all I want to do is tell you the Bible's answer to that question.
Firstly, here are some words from the Bible: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
What do they mean? The writer is saying that one person was there at the start when the universe was and so does know how it was all done. Just as I could explain how my study ended up in such a mess, there is one person who can explain the universe, one person who can tell us about the beginning.
This person is God: an eternal and all-powerful person. But this person is also a man. Who is the writer talking about? Jesus. And in the book which has these words – John's gospel – the writer lays out the evidence to back up his claim. He brings forward witnesses, recording their evidence, telling what happened in the life of Jesus. And towards the end of his book he presents us with one great piece of evidence: Jesus came back from the dead. This is the proof of who he claims to be. He was seen by many people and those people went out across the world telling others about him and being willing to die rather than give up on this message.
There is a person who can explain the beginning, because he is the beginning, because he is God.
Now maybe you would say "You expect me to believe that? How long ago did this happen? 2000 years ago? Don't be ridiculous!" But the chain of witnesses to Jesus runs back right through the two thousand years. Ever since the claim was made, people have been passing on the news: Jesus Christ came back from the dead!
How many people are in the chain between you and the first people who saw Jesus? Well, 2000 years is how many lifetimes? Assuming an average of 50 years each two thousand years is just 40 people. In theory there may be a chain of just 40 people who have handed on the message from those who knew Jesus personally, to you.Which is more believable? That a scientist can tell you what happened 12 billion years ago, on the basis of a limited number of observations and calculations, when he wasn't there to see it? Or that John can tell you what happened 2000 years ago, on the basis of eyewitness evidence, which has been passed on from person to person, changing lives as it was passed on. Which requires greater faith?
At the start I said that people ask the question "Is God a man or a woman?" Well if God is powerful enough to create the entire universe, then he has created both men and women. God is greater than both categories. But the amazing thing is this. So that we can come to know God, God has actually chosen to become a man. That man is Jesus Christ and he is still alive. It is possible to come to know God, by coming to know a man.
And that is my invitation to you. Come to know God. Leave behind the question: "who made God?" Nobody made God. But God made you. And now he has made a way for you to know him, and that in a personal way.