10 Feb 2024
CERC kickstarted its 2024 teaching programme with a sermon series going through the book of Genesis. The series consisted of 5 sermons preached by Pastor Robin Gan and Pastor-in-Training (PiT) Jerome Leng.
In presenting Genesis as the ‘Gospel from the beginning’ (which is the series subtitle), the sermons helped the church to read Genesis not merely as a book of beginnings but as a book presenting the foundational paradigm of the Christian life.
For instance, in the first sermon, CERC realised that the lesson Adam would have learned from his failure to keep God’s command is not just a concern limited to the time before the Fall. Instead, it is a timeless imperative that extends throughout human history, even to us today: to fear the LORD God in His Word.
Against the backdrop of the fallen world darkened by sin, the fear of God shines as a blinding light through a Saviour—the chosen generation of Abraham. It was emphasised that the chosen line acts as a paradigm of faith because, in spite of their sin and shortcomings, their fear of God grows stronger. Hence, the diagram below:
Past Genesis sermons
2024 was not the first time sermons on the book of Genesis were preached. There were other occasions where CERC had sermons preached from the same book.
In 2020, CERC had been through the Genesis narrative during the ‘God’s Story: Old Testament’ series, exploring the gospel and the glory of God by tracing the narrative of Salvation History from the books of the Old Testament.
Pastor Robin walking through the overarching narrative of Biblical History using the diagram that was also the series artwork for God’s Story: Old Testament’ series
And on 10th January 2016, Pastor Robin preached the sermon “The Beginning and Breaking of Relationship with God” based on Genesis 2-3 as part of the 2016 Spirituality Series.
Compared to past sermons on Genesis, the 2024 Genesis series was unique with its focus on the Gospel in Genesis.
Challenges
In the 2024 series, several incidents occurred, presenting setbacks to the sermon series.
Early in the series, Pastor Robin developed a health condition that made speaking difficult. It was so bad that on one particular Sunday, Pastor Robin couldn’t preach the sermon that day. Instead, PiT Jerome Leng took the pulpit and preached the Youth sermon to the entire congregation.
[Read more about the incident here]
“Although I wasn’t speaking directly to the adults, I believe that they would still learn something about Genesis. If anything, they can see firsthand how I adjusted to the youths since they’ve seen me preach a ‘normal’ Sunday sermon before.” commented PiT Jerome in an interview, “As a church, we should keep striving to be all things to all men so that more people can hear the gospel.”
Nevertheless, despite his sore throat and hoarse voice, Pastor Robin resumed preaching in the following weeks to finish the entire series, through 50 chapters of God’s Word, amounting to more than 20 hours of preaching.
Reflections from the series
The sermons preached helped the entire CERC congregation sharpen their understanding of the gospel through Genesis.
“As a kid, I used to memorise Genesis 1 in Hebrew. Despite such, I had no idea what it meant.” said Ehud Lojuin from TGG Original (pictured below), “but now, I began to see that Genesis was a thin red line that connected the gospel to the other books of the Bible. Namely, it has shown to me what God had in mind [in creating humanity]: a people devoted to service in his Eternal Kingdom under His rule.
“Genesis made me see how it all begins with God and all of existence is for God”, said Yennie Lee from Bandar Utama 5 GG. “[From Genesis] I can see how God is completely in control throughout history to bring about His salvation plan for mankind, so that they can be restored to be His people once more.”
“The sermon series helped me in seeing that the gospel is [about] God being faithful and steadfast in establishing His plans through the unconditional election of the Patriarchs.” said Wong Sook Huei from CERC Youth, “The Gospel is about God being GOD, that [despite] the tragic event of Genesis 3, sinful human beings can be His people”
This Gospel from Genesis, which is the salvation of the chosen people redeemed by God, edified the congregants of CERC. It taught them to realise that the church consists of sinful men, saved and transfomed by the mercy of God alone.
“Genesis has shown me the intent of God in creating humanity: to have a people of His own. The paradigm remains the same for the church as it is for Adam: to be called to serve God in His world, and to spread his glory in the world he created. Genesis placed a very important emphasis on being marked as God’s people.” said Ehud Lojuin. “As members of the new covenant,” he continued, “[Genesis] taught me that we should live our lives to be ultimately oriented towards our Lord.”
Ryan Andrew added: “I had a tendency to take church for granted, or treat it as just a means of duty. But through Genesis, I was reminded that the church is a testament of God’s mercy to choose a people for himself. As a church regular, it taught me how to love the unlovable–[because] God continues to pick and save these sinful humans from themselves.”
In seeing the paradigm of the Gospel in Genesis, the church learnt to appreciate the depth of the grace of God to the church.
“For me, reading through Genesis again is like looking at our church” said Pastor Robin in the concluding sermon of the series, “Because we learn, as part of the Genesis 3 reality, [that] as much as we fail, [the more] we see the need for a saviour.”
