The Apostles Creed

Introduction

Enjoyed a partnership in the Gospel with you over the last year, good to be part of that flow. The body of Christ is intimately connected over great distances. And I mean great distances, you guys are far! I don’t think I crossed another timezone to get here, but it was probably a close thing. It gets me thinking about what it is that allows us to talk about one Church, a single body of Christ, in spite of distance and difference.

What makes us one people before God.

1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation

If you’re a Christian, you begotten, born in your faith, not self-made.

And of course, when a baby arrives in this world, they’re generally not happy. There’s no congratulating the doctor, no thanking the nurses for their service and asking for maybe a carrot to take the edge off. If I remember rightly, there was one thing and one thing only that quieted them, gave them a sense of peace, one thing they wanted, one thing they needed. Their mother’s milk.

Had everything they needed to grow, the vitamins and nutrients, even mom’s antibodies to make up for their weak immune system.

And don’t misunderstand, some have taken this to mean that these were new converts, they weren’t, many of these Christians from northern Asia Minor were seasoned in their faith, some would have been in the faith for up to 30 years. Craving pure spiritual milk, isn’t a one time thing, something to move on from. We don’t ever graduate from that need.

When he speaks of pure spiritual milk, what exactly does he mean? It likely refers back about 2 verses, where he is speaking about something they had been given. As he puts it: This word is the good news that was preached to you.

So lets talk about this good news, lets talk milk

Apostles Creed

Strong and old tradition in Western Christianity. Called the Apostles creed. It goes like this:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. AMEN.

Ø The “I believe” is where we get the word “creed”

Ø What I just said, you won’t find it in the Bible, chapter and verse, but it is in the Bible.

Ø You may recognize it. After all:

o In many Churches, it’s recited by all every Sunday morning, and without notes, or sung by the congregation, put to all kinds of music, its put in the form of questions and answers during baptism, or repeated faithfully every morning as a form of prayer.

§ St Augustine who was leading his congregation at Hippo in north Africa, advise his flock to have this creed before them first thing when they rise in the morning, last when they fall asleep at night. These days that mostly just describes iphones.

o In one form or another it, or something like, has been a part of Church life since the age of the first followers of Jesus, the apostolic age.

o But it’s not something like some of the other traditionally important deposits of the faith, like the Lord’s prayer or the decalogue, the ten commandments, known by school children, sternly enforced by parents and cherished as the bedrock of God’s covenant with his people.

o No the apostle’s creed has no chapter and verse in that version or any version of scripture

o It’s simply one of the traditional summaries and great outlines of the Christian faith that have unitedus in a single communion across oceans, continents, political stripes and language barriers.

§ Going to Church in Kenya, 3 hours, they sing for longer, preach for longer, they even do the conga line through the aisles of the Church. When’s the last time we did the Conga line. But at the heart of their worship lies a common confession.

§ I just spoke about a connection between our Churches, it isn’t because we all like the same sports team, it’s because we have the same confession, it’s because when someone says the word Gospel, we all hear the same thing, the good news of our own salvation through Christ, that our own sins have been canceled through the cross. The creeds and confessions, like the apostles creed, are traditional expressions of that unity.

Ø But I just said that unhappy word again; tradition.

Tradition

o Tradition is an uncomfortable word for some. Particularly those who find themselves in the Baptist tradition.

o The word tradition is certainly to be found in the Bible, and a part of our discomfort with it has to do with the clarioncall of Jesus to release our grip on those traditions that have led us astray.

§ Confronting the Pharisees, who had a strongly positive view of tradition, unlike some of the other Jewish sects at the time:

§ Matthew 23:23: ““Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

§ Mark 7:8: “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

§ But of course, his concern, and the nature of his rebukes are clear; the finer points of the law and even the traditions of men only shown to be problems when the draw us away from the things of God, when they get bumped to the top of our to do list.

§ Tradition itself may have found itself being cast in a negative light in scripture, but the term itself is entirely neutral.

§ The word is paradosis, and it simply means, that which is handed over. You can picture a baton in a relay race. You can hand over all kinds of things, some good, some bad.

§ The think handed over can be pretty bad

· I’ve known hand-me-downs that were not great

· Yes, I ate a few peanut butter jelly sandwich in my snowpants before handing it down, what of it?

· I don’t even want to talk about the stuff my older sister handed down to me.

· More sinister than that, the word paradosis can be translated as betrayal or arrest; it’s the word used in the new testament to describe what Judas did in betraying Jesus, a handing over of Jesus to those who would put him to death

· But can it be good?; It’s hard for me to say yes.

· Yes, definitively

· 2 Thess 2:15 “ So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.”

o Showing our discomfort, some translations give the word “teachings”

· There’s a strange misunderstanding at work in the thinking of many Christians. That with the reformation 500 years ago, we through out all tradition and started fresh, Just the Bible, sola scriptura. While there were a few generally short-lived extremist groups who did just that, nearly all of the major groups coming from that era did nothing of the sort. See, what men like Luther, Zwingli and Calvin did instead was to dismiss tradition as being an equal of Scripture, and to instead see it as an underling, as a servant of scripture.

· If any tradition that was handed down from early times was rooted in scripture, if it was centered on Christ, if it gave Glory to God, if it pointed us back to a reliance on his Word, then they rejoiced in it, taught it and faithfully handed it on. As soon as you’re handed that baton, hold tight to it, stand firm in it

o A handing over can be a sensitivething.

§ Baton in a race

· Sensitive moment in the race: he got up and we caught up

· But the baton, dropped, too early, too late, medium rare steak

· You know that this is sensitive, it’s strange how difficult it is to get it right.

o If you have kids, you get that.

· There have been all kinds of efforts made to substitute the true faith, with something that only masquerades as the true faith

· When heretics wanted to prove that their traditions were the right ones, they’d make up names of followers of the early apostles and pretend to have received their secret traditions from them.

The Deposit

o It was long thought important that the Christian Church hand over with care and wisdom, they took it deeply seriously, so much so, that they had all kinds of terms that they used to described this thing being handed over. Think about how often you see it in the new testament

§ The apostles teaching: Acts 2:42

§ The Pattern of teaching: Rom 6:17 “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.”

§ The word of Life

§ Timothy, guard the deposit (1 Tim 6:20)

§ Sound words

§ Guard the good treasure entrusted to you (2 Tim 1:14)

§ A little later, the rule of faith

§ They had all kinds of terms for this gospel, this pure spiritual milk, and like a newborn child, a Church that was healthy could not be satisfied with less.

§ Vincent of Lerins: “What is meant by deposit? That which is committed to you, not invented by you, received, not devised, you are not an author, you are a keeper. Keep the deposit”.

§ In the gospel given to you, and summarized in the Apostles creed, you have a sacred trust

Ø There are early impulses towards summarizing the Faith, and handing it faithfully from hand to hand, and all kinds of venues where it was needed.

o Baptismal

o Preaching

o Catechism

o Defending

Ø And this handing over was a good handing over.

o 1 Cor15:3-8 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

o And this relay race has been going on for 2000 years; you were given were given that deposit of faith, are you holding tight to it, are you passing it over with care

Telling the story

Ø Goes back to an ancient impulse to have this sort of recital of salvation history and then pointing to where the listeners fit in, Moses, Joshua, Ezekiel, Ezra, Stephen, and you can see it outside of Scripture too, Josephus does the same outside of the walls of Jerusalem during the jewish roman war

o Retelling the story of Israel, often starting with Abraham, highlighting the great release from bondage under Moses. And leading through the hardheartedness of the people under the prophets or their faithfulness, depending on the nature of the message;

o And finally, letting them see their place, and the place of the decision set before them.

o That same sense, of belonging in this retelling, continued on with the creeds

o Look at how Paul, almost seeming bewildered, finds himself in the story;

§ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

o When you read the apostles creed, you are meant to find yourself in the telling

Ø How do you do that: The trinitarian baptism in particular; Matt 28:18 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

o Each one gave rise to part of the Creed

o Expanded

§ I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

§ The next tells the story of Christ, from the beginning, until his rising from the dead, and even to his coming again; it tells the stories that receive such richness in the gospels

§ But the third part, that’s where you find yourself as a part of the great arc of salvation history.

§ the holy universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting

o The story of the Gospel, the good news, your story

o When that same Vincent I spoke of before wanted to describe what is that deposit of the faith that unites all of us, he had the pretty catch phrase; That which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.

o Perhaps not quite so simple, but the pure spiritual milk to which we turn is the same that has been craved and spoken from the beginning

Ø Apostles Creed, with some small changes and updates, reflects a very early expressionof our faith.

o Said by the 12 apostles; hey, write that down. not worth the trouble of debunking it, but reflects a very simple and early version of what the body of Christ confessed with one voice.

Ø Said like that, it seems short, pithy, but it is a reflection of a much deeper story; the grand narrative of scripture underpins every one of it’s details. And if you can’t find the gospel in it, then you just aren’t looking.

o These aren’t just bold and bald statements, they are rooted in the world of holy scripture and they’re meant to call us back to scripture. The creeds call upon us to have clarity in what we profess to believe, that we can express the good news without getting lost. It’s to scripture that we look for a richer and deeper understanding;

o Take “suffered under Pontius Pilate”, we get this story from all angles through 4 gospels, we hear of Pilots efforts to wash has hands, and not just physically, we hear of soldiers, like leopards, being loosed on Jesus to mock him and degrade him, with no one to reign them in, we hear of the sour wine with gall given to him, a mockery of care for the dying.

o None of that is in the bald words, but those simple words point back to the 4-fold expression of our gospels and of what Jesus actually suffered as he bore our sins.

Objections

Ø There could be objections

Ø Well they needed it, But why do I need it

o “Creeds are apt to become cages”

o And make no mistake, we don’t like cages.

o Don’t box me in.

We Each have a Creed

Ø Whether we like it or not; We each have a creed

Ø Howard Osgood once said, a creed is like a backbone, you need not carry your creeds in front of you, but you must have one. What comes after “I believe…” is what you can summarize in a minute with no notes, it sits at the basis of your decisions and it forms the pattern of your conversations. You may be surprised at what comes out;

Ø “I know of 2 beautiful things, the stary skies above my head and the sense of duty in my heart.” He perhaps didn’t see it, but what he was doing was reciting his creed, his very core

o Most people aren’t quite that poetic.

o I believe in calling it like it is.

o Sometimes it’s not thought through at all,

o I believe in ribs and beer on a football night, and that it’s ok to yell at the ref, even when he’s right

Ø But of course it’s all over the place, but not for us, we have the Bible: As there was astronomy before the telescope, there was theology before the bible, it’s just that it was generally wrong.

o But what about us who have the bible

Ø Well recite your creed, the things that are the most central to your faith. You may find it’s not so pure spiritual milk. it would be a babel of voices. A wild dissonance of disagreement.

o We’ve agreed about the fundamentals in remarkable ways, but Churches have split over the wildest things, making me often ask, are we really keeping the first things first

o Serious fights in Church:

§ Big church argument over the discovery that the church budget was off $0.10. Someone finally gave a dime to settle the issue

§ An argument on whether the church should allow deviled eggs at the church meal

§ An argument over whether to have gluten-free communion bread or not

o Over whether it’s allowed to stroll on a Sunday, to celebrate Christmas, to dance, full stop. To bring drums into the worship service. As it’s been said, almost without exaggeration, new denominations have been formed because we couldn’t agree on the color of the carpets in the Church sanctuary.

Ø But that which units us should stand at the very center, a common backbone, if we are to be a common body.

Ø But the bible is my creed; there is a confusion here; to say “I believe, and then move on to God created the heavens and the earth, working your way through the genealogies of Chronicles to the end of the book of Revelation, it’ll take about 73 hours. Or is it to vaguely point at this book and say, whatever this says, I’m good with it. Well what does it say? What fundamental message can we call “good news”?

Ø From the beginning of the Church, being able to answer that question, mattered.

Ø Summary statements (1 Cor 15); Paul was grounding them in what was of first importance.

House built on Sand

Ø Even Jesus spoke about this. Mtt 7: House built on sand. He talks about it crashing down (talking about those who don’t put his words into action). But what if the house falls down one wall at a time. It falls piecemeal. Bit by bit. Until you finally look around and realize, you’ve been squatting on a ruin, no longer living in a house. Most people, when they get to that point and finally bother to look around, quickly see that there’s no reason for them to stick around, their tent could just as easily be pitched anywhere else. easily pull up their tent pegs and go looking for something different, but they had stopped dwelling in the faith handed down to them, and Holy spirit had stopped dwelling in them, long before.

Applications

Ø Applications:

Ø You need to engage your faith, drinking spiritual milk, you may have strong feelings about your faith, they may go way back, but do you read through the apostles creed and it feels a little distant. Then for you, it’s a call to scripture, to rediscover our shared faith, to find clarity.

Ø Or is everything meat to you. You feel you’ve graduated from pure spiritual milk. Your creed is 5 miles long. Chomping on meat too much. You love the word, you’re concerned about the cause of Christ; but you’ve got opinions like you’ve got hair follicles. but pride has given birth to lack of love and hardness of heart. You’re all about tithing cumin and spice. How do we treat other Christians.

Ø Or in the middle.

Ø Meant to point you back to the word. If you only hear the word on Sunday, not enough.

Ø Or maybe your friend dragged you here or your wife or husband and this just isn’t for you. Well that creed summarized a salvation history that started from the beginning and arced all the way to the very end of time, but it zoomed in on one moment in history. That central part tells the story of the Gospel. The life and death of Jesus. It’s a story that you need to hear. That was what we call the coles notes version. The Gospels, well that’s where you meet Jesus, and that is a meeting you don’t want to miss. The last part, it tells you that the story isn’t about someone else, it’s about you. The baton is extended to you, and you’ll soon discover, it’s what Paul called it, the good treasure, and that has no substitute.