Sermon Tone Analysis

Let me ask you a question.

By a show of hands, how many of you, when a politician makes a campaign promise, are undoubtedly sure they will keep that promise once they are elected?

Another question: How many of you have had someone — a parent, child, boss, spouse, former spouse — promise something very important to you…then fail to meet that promise?

Our ability to trust has been eroded by the sad reality of broken promises.

For many, maybe not…but perhaps in this room, but definitely in the wider culture, the ability to trust has been eroded to the point that many questions whether words themselves even have meaning anymore.

Like Pontius Pilate, they ask cynically, “What is truth?”

And yet, we inherently understand that all of life is a life of faith in something — it might be faith in ourselves, our family, friends, governments, plans, ideologies, religions, institutions, any number of things — but faith and trust are inherent to human life.

We certainly have the option to choose what or whom we believe, but whether or not we will believe is not a choice — we will do it by necessity.

Whether we are religious or not, we will reach out in faith to something, because it is in our nature as humans to rely on something outside of ourselves.

And so, when we recite the Apostles’ Creed, it is not surprising that we start with those two words, “I believe.”

Those who recite the Creed are forced to recognize their need to know, to trust, and to belong to something beyond themselves.

As humans, we have many needs: food, shelter, security, love, companionship, purpose — but our most basic need, one hardwired into our humanity, is the need to know God.

St. Augustine’s prayer resounds within our hearts, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

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This morning I want to answer one question:

What does the Bible say about belief?

About faith?

We start our recitation of the Creed with those two words, “I believe.”

For months now, we’ve been spending time in the Book of John, who is very clear that his aim is that we would believe.

But what does that mean, to believe?

Let’s pray, and we will open the Scriptures to see.

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Blessed Lord, you have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning—grant us that we may in such a way hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

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The Bible uses the word “faith” in various ways.

In fact, the verb to believe is derived from that word faith.

Faith is the noun and to believe is to have faith or to do faith.

And, like I said, the Bible uses it in various ways.

It speaks of the faith, that is, all of the assertions about God and Jesus and salvation.

It speaks of receiving faith as a gift from God.

It speaks of living or doing faith, being obedient to the truths revealed.

It speaks of pressing on in faith.

Let’s look at some of them in more detail.

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The Body of Faith

First, the Bible acknowledges that there are certain truths which make up the Christian faith.

In Scripture, these truths are called the faith.

They are the facts about God’s person and His work in the world which make up the foundation of our system of beliefs as Christians.

Turn to Acts 6 on page 622 of the pew Bible.

After Pentecost, the word of the resurrection of Jesus went forth throughout the city of Jerusalem and many came to believe what God had done through him.

Listen to what Luke writes about these new disciples:

Acts 6:7 CSB

So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

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There is a certain collection of basic truths which set Christianity apart from other systems of belief and other religions.

And the foundation of these specific truths are the testimony of the original apostles regarding what they knew about Jesus of Nazareth.

The apostle John starts his first letter with these words:

1 John 1:1–3 CSB

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—

that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—

what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

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What the apostle’s captured in their writing of the New Testament was the completion of the work God started in the Old Testament — that He was sending His Word into the world and that all who received His Word would enter into the eternal life.

The Apostles’ Creed calls us to be like those first disciples in Jerusalem and believe the faith — the facts that the apostle’s saw and heard and experienced in their years following Jesus on earth.

Facts which were revealed by God and passed down by faithful teachers, with the aim that we who have heard will pass on those same truths to the rest of the world that they too might become adopted sons of our great God.

So, you might ask, what are those truths that are so essential to Christian faith?

Well, in one sense, we are going to answer that question through this entire series.

When we look at each of the truths written in the Creed, we will see from Scripture each is the truth and each is truly foundational.

Without each line, Christianity crumbles.

But at the heart of the truths of the faith is the message of the gospel: the divine announcement that God has brought salvation from sin in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

The gospel is that God is making all things new and that you are allowed to come along for that ride through the work of Jesus.

The bedrock of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners.

Everything else rests upon that cornerstone.

So, the first way that the Bible uses the term faith is as the faith — the facts which encompass the testimony about Jesus which are rooted in the gospel.

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The Act of Faith

But, we cannot leave the idea of faith, of believing, as merely mentally holding that those things are true.

We must affirm that they are true, but just saying that they are true falls short of the full picture of biblical faith.

James writes

James 2:19 CSB

You believe that God is one.

Good!

Even the demons believe—and they shudder.

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Biblical faith is more than just saying that something is true.

It’s even more than saying something is true for me — even personalizing the truth doesn’t get to the real act of faith.

The first line of the Creed is I believe in God the Father, Almighty.

And that’s a natural way for us to say it in English.

But it was written in Greek, just like the New Testament was and the writers of the Creed used a phrase from the New Testament, which would in a more straightline, but less natural way be — I am believing into God.

J.I. Packer wrote:

That is to say, over and above believing certain truths about God, I am living in a relation of commitment to God in trust and union.

When I say “I believe in God,” I am professing my conviction that God has invited me to this commitment, and declaring that I have accepted his invitation.

Biblical faith is something that is living, and active, and dynamic.

That means it is fueled by the living God, it’s not stagnant but moving toward an end, and that it is allowed to change us — to change who we love, and what we love, and how we love.

Faith is our trusting response to the truth of the gospel which then transforms every aspect of our lives.

And so as we look at each line of the Creed over the next few months, for every one we ask, “How does this line point to Jesus and how does this line make me cry out with David in

Psalm 119:94 CSB

I am yours; save me, for I have studied your precepts.

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If you will, turn to 1 Cor 1, on page 647 of the pew Bible.

To have faith means that we believe that God is there, God is with us, God is for us, and that God offers us a world beyond our own that we can scarcely imagine.

Read

1 Corinthians 1:9 CSB

God is faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Because of His faithfulness, God calls a people to Himself.

God the Father promised His Son that He would save a people as a bride for Him.

And He has and He will continue until every one of God’s elect has been saved across the earth from every tribe, tongue, and people.

Ultimately faith is our trusting response to God’s faithfulness.

Our faith is oriented toward the God who has shown that he himself is faithful to his people.

When our faith fails, our God remains faithful to us.

The focal point of our faith is Jesus the Christ.

By believing into the apostolic testimony to Jesus, who he was and why he died and rose again, we experience the saving benefits promised us in the gospel.

We are justified, made right with God, by faith alone.

We recieve healing in His name.

We receive assurance in His name.

We receive the Holy SPirit in His name.

We have victory over sin in His name.

And in the end,