You will find a quick visual overview of the movement of the Book of Genesis. It will help orient you and your hearers as you preach through the entire book or sections of the book. It provides, at a glance, one way to divide the book into pericopes. The chart includes key verses in the book, an overarching title for the book, the overall message of the book, and some historical background. It is color-coded to highlight certain defining aspects of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This chart could be used as a slide in your church service. It could serve as an introduction to a new series or a weekly check-in before you begin preaching. It could even be printed out and given to the members of your church, as a resource to help them grasp the message of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Genesis mixes history, biography, and theology in such a way that a preacher can easily develop a sermon series highlighting one or more of these emphases. I once preached a biographical series from Joseph\u2019s life titled \u201cIn Pursuit of Excellence.\u201d Later, I considered another such series drawn from Abraham\u2019s life to be called \u201cWalking by Faith\u201d and a historical series covering chapters 1-11 possibly to be titled \u201cIn the Beginning.\u201d Eventually, I settled on a few stand-alone sermons from those passages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To preach a single series covering all of the book\u2019s fifty chapters poses quite a challenge. It first requires the preacher to identify, on the one hand, a theme that unifies the book\u2019s contents and, on the other, the book\u2019s natural divisions. What the preacher determines here will set the trajectory for the whole series. Then, the preacher must determine how detailed the series should be. Chapter-by-chapter preaching makes less sense for this book than a unit-by-unit approach. The following suggested series may be preached in as few as four sermons or as many as eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1) Finding Lavida Bendita in a Vida Loca World; In the Beginning (a historical series on Genesis 1-11); 2) Biographical series on Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph; 3) His Story, Our Story\u2014A theological series on the \u201cseed\u201d of the woman and how this theme is developed throughout Genesis and beyond.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Title\/Big idea for whole series: <\/strong>Finding Lavida Bendita in a Vida Loca World: <\/em>God intends for us to lead blessed lives that bless others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Genesis consists primarily of narratives, that is, stories. The Bible\u2019s stories, particularly those in the Old Testament, operate on three levels. The upper level is theological. Every story teaches us something about God through what he says, through what other characters in the story say about him, and\/or through his actions. The middle level is historical. Israel\u2019s history is traced through the Bible\u2019s stories. The bottom level is biographical. Here we meet people like us muddling through life as best they can under God\u2019s watchful eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When preaching from a story, it\u2019s important to keep all three levels in mind. Sermons that don\u2019t rise above the first level may provide helpful examples and instruction on how (not) to live but too often leave the hearer trusting in her\/his own strength to implement those instructions. Sermons that rise no higher than the second level may be interesting, even informative, but can seem irrelevant to the challenges of life in today\u2019s world. Only by rising to the highest level do story-based sermons help hearers along in their life with God, by calling them to look to his Spirit for strength to obey and by pointing them to his Son as the embodiment of perfect obedience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a great deal of truth in the old adage that \u201cbiblical narrative is not normative.\u201d In other words, just because God told Abraham to offer up Isaac doesn\u2019t mean he intends for us to practice child sacrifice today. In much the same way, the Book of Job tells us what his friends said, but it\u2019s not to endorse all they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, all Scripture is instructive\u2014beneficial for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteous living. There\u2019s something to be learned from every conversation, every list, every story. What we must do as preachers in order to apply a story as the author intended is to ask not only \u201cWhat is the writer saying here?\u201d but \u201cWhy are they saying it?\u201d or, better yet, \u201cWhat are they doing with what they are saying?\u201d Is the author issuing a warning, offering encouragement, inspiring awe, offering evidence, instigating praise, or something else? What (re)action is the author trying to evoke?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authorial intention should always inform if not guide our handling of the scriptures. This is especially important to remember when preaching from Genesis 1-11. While Moses undoubtedly recounted God\u2019s creation of the world and the great flood in such a way as to contrast the person and ways of Israel\u2019s God with the gods of the surrounding nations, it\u2019s unlikely he intended what he wrote to be treated as a scientific treatise on either topic. Without question, what Moses wrote is completely true! But we must beware that we not lose sight of the theological truths he wanted to convey while using his account for some purpose other than what he intended. This is not to say that Moses couldn\u2019t have \u201cwritten better than he knew.\u201d Thanks to the Spirit\u2019s inspiration, his writings may say more scientifically than he realized. Nevertheless, we must begin with what he said and why he said it. Only afterwards might we consider whether anything else needs to be added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theological Themes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The words \u201cbless\u201d and \u201cblessing\u201d occur more often in Genesis than any other book of the Bible. What does it mean to be blessed? Our hearers will likely equate blessing to good health, material wealth, and overall prosperity. While that\u2019s close to the mark prior to the Fall, back when Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect bodies and an abundance of all good things, we now live on the other side of Eden. Deprivation, decay, and death are the rule in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does blessing look like now? To answer that question, we start with Abraham. His very name contains two of the three consonants in the word \u201cbless.\u201d In a sense, Abraham himself was the incarnation of blessing. To him was given God\u2019s blessing, and through him that blessing still flows. Turning to the New Testament, we find Jesus, from the \u201cseed\u201d of Abraham, to be the fulfillment of all God\u2019s promises (2 Cor. 1:20). In him we experience life abundant and eternal (John 10:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abraham received and believed God\u2019s promises but didn\u2019t live to see them fulfilled. Instead, his life was marked by waiting, disappointment, failure, and, despite it all, hope. It was hope that sustained Abraham\u2019s son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Jacob desperately sought God\u2019s blessing but didn\u2019t begin to know it until he learned in a midnight wrestling match to let God rule. He walked away from that encounter with a limp and, more importantly, a new name\u2014Israel. Finally, through Abraham\u2019s grandson Joseph, the world began to experience some of those blessings that God previously promised to bestow through Abraham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearly, \u201cblessing\u201d ties the Book of Genesis together. It\u2019s impossible to preach through the book without addressing this oft misunderstood topic. To cover this topic well, a preacher must be clear on what \u201cblessing\u201d looked like before Genesis 3 and what it looks like thereafter from chapter 12 through today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The One who blesses is Yahweh Elohim (2:4), the LORD God. He is the one God, not one out of a pantheon. And yet, his words in 1:26 imply there is more to this one God than a singular person! He is sovereign and almighty, not tied to any locale (be it earth, sea, or sky) nor limited in ability. He only has to speak, and it is done. This God created human beings in his image, not as an afterthought nor out of personal necessity but to share in his community and grace. In sum, the God of Genesis 1 was unlike any god known to the ancient world. This is what Moses wanted to emphasize, but it\u2019s a point too easily overlooked when we turn to Genesis 1 only to form an apology for a particular view on origins. Let the preacher beware!<\/p>\n\n\n\n God\u2019s blessings are never deserved. Despite Adam and Eve\u2019s sin, God didn\u2019t abandon them. Instead, he sacrificed some of his beloved animals, the very animals that Adam had only recently named, in order to provide his image-bearers with coats (3:21). Despite humanity\u2019s subsequent chaotic behavior, God didn\u2019t destroy everyone on earth. Instead, he recreated the race beginning with Noah and his family. Despite the sins of Noah and his generations that followed, God didn\u2019t leave the world with nothing but confusion in the wake of Babel\u2019s demise. Instead, he made a covenant with Abraham. As much as we may want to rail against sin, and there is definitely a place for that(!), we must never fail to preach God\u2019s undeserved grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adam, the progenitor of humanity, failed to appreciate God\u2019s grace enough to resist the temptation to eat from Eden\u2019s forbidden tree. Noah, who became something of a second Adam through whom God recreated the human race, failed to appreciate God\u2019s grace enough to behave any better than he did after the flood. What did God do? He started over yet again with Abraham, who would father a new people. To this third Adam, God promised a land (not Eden but Canaan), a seed (as numerous as the stars and sand, recalling his earlier command to Adam and Noah when he told them to be fruitful and multiply), and special purpose (not to tend a garden or build a boat but to bless the world).<\/p>\n\n\n\n God walked with Adam in the cool of the day; he walked with Noah\u2019s ancestor Enoch; and he commanded Abraham to walk uprightly before him (17:1). What does God require of his people today? It is that they do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with [their] God (Micah 6:8). When we call our hearers to a life of obedience, let\u2019s not forget nor fail to remind them that we\u2019re inviting them into a blessed life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Space prohibits me from making more than a passing reference to the formerly barren women in Genesis whom God miraculously blessed with children (foreshadowing Mary\u2019s virginal conception); the theme of conflict running throughout the book (pointing ahead to that time when the \u201cseed of the woman\u201d will finally prevail); how many divine appointments take place around a body of water\u2014especially wells (an oft-repeated theme in Scripture, most memorably when Jesus conversed with the Samaritan woman at one of Jacob\u2019s wells); the multiple deceptions throughout the book (giving credence to Jesus\u2019 assertion that we are of our father, the Devil, who was a liar from the beginning [John 8:44-45]); the choice of Judah, not Joseph, the favored one, or Benjamin, the youngest, to be heir to Abraham\u2019s blessing (from whose tribe Jesus came); and the traces of Eden we find in the new heavens and new earth of Revelation 21-22 (including the Tree of Life from which Adam and Eve were barred following their fall). Life, at last, comes full circle! What started in paradise ends in paradise. What grace! What a good God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n As stated earlier, my lone extended sermon series from Genesis traced the arc of Joseph\u2019s life. I was in my mid-twenties then and pastoring my first church. I admired how Joseph overcame so much to leave behind such a wonderful legacy. It was my hope that both I and my congregation might learn from his exemplary life and be excellent before the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the three decades since that initial series, I have preached a handful of one-off sermons from some of the book\u2019s more familiar stories. Most recently, I took up the story of Noah, focusing first on God\u2019s judgment and then his grace. I pointed out that families were in a mess prior to the flood (6:1-6) and that they remained in a mess after the flood (9:20-27). The flood changed nothing! Only God\u2019s grace is keeping us afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I never cease to marvel at the riches to be found in Genesis. More amazing still, it\u2019s only the beginning of the Bible\u2019s story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2026\/01\/chart-genesis.jpg?w=640\")
Sermon Series<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Text: Genesis 1:1-11:26<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Text: Genesis 1:1-25<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Text: Genesis 3:1-6:8<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Text: Genesis 6:9-9:29<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Text: Genesis 10:1-11:26<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Text: Genesis 11:27-25:18<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Text: Genesis 25:19-36:43<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Text: Genesis 37:1-50:26<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Application<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
My Encounter with Genesis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Recommended Commentaries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n