Apostles Creed | The Church Catholic

Intro

Hey yall, whats up?

Everybody good?

So question for you, have you ever noticed how words change over time, like the meaning of words change over time.

Like slang is at an all time pace for changing words. Like did y’all see that rizz won an award? Oxford Dictionaries, word of the year.

I had not even heard that word until one of y’all described them selves as the rizzler, which I thought was hilarious. And had no idea what that meant.

But words change over time, they morph meanings, they change context. Like this is a victorian slang term, “Case of the morbs” anyone want to take a shot at what that might mean? Got a bad case of depression. But it’s especially weird if you read older books that use words way different than how we use them today. Take the word queer, if you are reading Lord of the Rings, you’re gonna see that word describe people who are strange, nothing to do with gender or sexuality, it’s more about out of place, but when you read it, it’s hard to look past how we might use the word today.

But words change over time, the meaning of words do as well.

And thats where we are going to start tonight.

So the last almost 2 month, we have been looking at the Apostles Creed, going through it thought by thought as a baseline for basic christianity. What we said at the beginning of this study, “All Christians believe more than is in the creed, but no christian can believe less.”

Gotta have what is contained in the creed. If you are an orthodox christian, then you believe the creed.

and there have been two lines in here that have made be pause before we looked at it. A couple weeks ago with “He descended in to hell” just cause that’s a weird concept. and then tonights thought.

Every week when we have confessed the creed together, I’ve seen your faces, i’ve heard the inflection of your voice.

What does it mean when we say the holy Catholic Church. Every time that line has come up, even I’m kinda like, “okay this feels weird”

The word catholic gives us pause.

As a protestant our defining quality is, we are not catholic.

I’m very much a baptist, and even more, I’m probably a reformed baptist.

So why confess belief in the holy catholic church? Why not change the word to something other than catholic?

Because we need church history, we need to understand that our faith is an old faith. That people from vastly different walks of life have followed the same Jesus, and had the same faith as ourselves. We need the witness of church history to inform us in the practice of our faith.

It also reminds us that we are in this together.

So the word Catholic, all that means is universal or the whole. It is a latin word that is basically transliterated from a greek word Katholius. which means “about the whole” of something.

Also, in the history of the Apostle’s creed, that is what the word meant, because the creed predates the catholic church, the first iteration of the creed is called the old creed, or the roman creed, and is traced back to late 1st century. so very early on in church history we see the use of the creed as a means to define orthodoxy.

SO this is what we are going to look at tonight, what is the church, and what does it mean to believe in the whole church, to believe in the church as a whole. How do different churches make up one church?

Context

SO if you have a bible great, if not, throw a hand up and we will get one to you. Who needs a bible?

cool, we are gonna be in Matthew 16:13-19 so flip over there, and let’s read this together then we are gonna talk about it.

but before we do that, let’s pray for our time in the word.

pray

okat cool, y’all read this with me Matt. 16:13-18

Matthew 16:13–18 ESV

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Okay cool, so we talked about this passage earlier in this study, but i want to start here again because there is so much going on here.

There in Caesarea Philippi, dark place north west of Galilee, this is not a place these Jewish boys would really want to be, this is a gentile city. Dark place.

And this is where Jesus decides to ask the disciples, who do they think he is.

SO look at this exchange, look at what he’s asking.

Who am I?

the disciples are at first like, some said Elijah, others Jeremiah, you’re a prophet.

So Jesus turns this on them and says, who do you say I am?

and Simon-Peter speaks up and says, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”

SO what does Jesus say to this, and really look at, Blessed are you Simon, Bar-Jonah, only the father could have revealed this to you. You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

Lots of times, and myself is included in this, we gloss over what is being said here.

We read this and say, “Okay cool, Jesus is putting Peter in charge. — next”

But why does Jesus say this to Peter?

Like who is peter?

Peter is just one of the disciples, and honestly if you are trying to build an organization like Peter is probs not the guy you put in charge.

Peter as a temper, Peter can be arrogant, peter doesn’t really like gentiles very much, peter wants to fight everyone. Peter would make a great soldier. But the head guy? Nah.

So what is Jesus saying? Why does Jesus give Peter the job?

Because it has nothing to do with who Peter is, but everything to do with what Peter just confessed.

See it’s not up to Peter to build the church. It is up to Jesus, and what does he build it on, not peter but on who Jesus himself is.

All Peter did was confess that Jesus is the christ. That Jesus is the son of the living God.

Now peter did become one of the early leaders in the church, if you go with Church history and tradition, he is the fist bishop of Rome, which that position morphs in to what we call the Pope. So yes Peter becomes a leader in the church, but it’s not because Peter is just stud of a guy, but because Jesus is building it on himself, through this confession that Christ is Lord. That Jesus is the Christ.

The church is not built on merely Peter, but on Peter’s confession of who Jesus is.

What is the church?

So let’s look at what this means, what does it mean to say, we believe in the Holy Catholic Church? What are we really saying by saying that? What does it mean for us?

So every week, at the end of every service, how do we close? What is the last thing I say to you as a group?

You didn’t come to church, you are the church, so go be the church. And there is a reason I say that every week, it’s almost a min creed, this is what I believe about what we are doing here.

So what is a church.

The word church here that Jesus uses is the word, Ekklesia, thats where we get our word for Church, the eklesia. Its a compound word of a group of people and called out.

So the word used here means, a people called out, a special people, a called group of people.

So at the base level, the church is a community of people, gathered together because they are called out by the same person. Christ himself.

So, when we get together, we are more than just a group of people, we are a special people gathered together to confess Christ is lord. We are a group called together by Christ himself as the head of the church.

Last year at DNow, Dr. Dew was here, and on that Sunday he preached on the church, and he made a good distinction, if the church is just a group of people gathered for similar belief, why is a Walmart not a church, everyone is there for the same thing, to get stuff, to buy something. Rarely does some one go into Walmart to just hangout.

So what is the difference?

When the church gathers, it is a group of people that make up something holy, to worship something of ultimate reality, which is The Lord. That is the only thing.

When the church gathers, it is a group of people, called out by Christ and called together by Christ to enjoy Him together. When we gather, we remember the sacrifice and look forward to when He is coming again.

Church is a a called out community of believers

Church a community or a group of individuals?

So what does that mean for us as individuals?

SO question for you, what is one of the hallmarks of being an American? If someone were to ask you, whats it mean to be an American, what would you say? Freedom, do what you want,

Sum it all up, free individualism.

Like make your own destiny, make it your way, do it your way. You are a self governing individual. I think thats a hallmark of American society.

And on the whole i think it’s a great thing.

If you’ve watched Parks and Rec, there is a scene where they’re at Ron Swansons moms house and there is just a room full of gun, like arsenal, and someone asks her, “why do you have all those guns?” and she says, “This is still america right? then I don’t have to answer stupid questions like that while standing on my own property.”

Boom, America, you can do what you want, when you want, how you want. You are free to make your own way.

But it gets a little tricky when that rubs up against our theology, when our americanism seeps in to our Christianity. When our rugged american individualism guides our theology, in stead of our theology guiding our rugged american individualism.

Think about it, the church is a group, made up of individuals, but what does the one who calls that group together say to the indivduals?

Christ says, die to yourself, pick up your cross and follow me.

So what does this tell us about the church? That the church is best done in the context of community. That the church is community, that is is family. A community and family made up of individuals called out and called to die to themselves.

So what this means for us is that the church cannot exist a part form community, you cannot have a one person church, there has to be other people.

The Christian life has to lived in community, because it stops when it leaves community, the Christian life dies when it gets outside of community.

If you read through Acts, it is amazing how the first century church comes together in the face of such hostile people and persecution. They had to walk together or they would be picked off one by one.

Jesus calls us sheep, because the herd can fend off a lone wolf, but a lone sheep dies by the lone wolf.

We have some friends who are church planters and missionaries in Boston and it is awesome and encouraging to see how they built this vibrant community in the midst of one of the most secular places in the country. They do everything in the context of church community because they would be dead if they didn’t. The church is called life community church and that is exactly how the operate. Life on mission together.

There are no lone wolf Christians, the christian life was designed to walked and lived in community.

I know that I have told you that before and you’ll here me tell you again, and reason is, when you get out in the world, after we send you out, when you get to college it is going to be on you to find genuine christian community and how to look for it. To know what you believe and which beliefs are the ones you hold fast to.

If you leave us and become isolated from the church, you are going to be eaten alive by the world, I have seen it, and will keep seeing and what to help equip you so that it isn’t you.

Church is a holy community.

what does the church do?

So then we gotta ask, what does a church do? We know its a group called out to worship together but what does a church do?

first thing it does, the primary calling of the church is to worship, that is why worship services are set up the way they are, to worship.

What we want to do in here Sing the Word, Preach the Word, and Pray the word.

We gather here not because all your friends are here but so that we can worship our savior together. That is the primary objective of the church. To worship the Lord. Worship and remember all that Christ has done for us.

The the second thing the church does is go.

We say it every week, go be the church.

What dos it mean to be the church? It means going out in to your community and showing that community the radical community of the church. Where people of all sorts of background and life experience can come together and be unified in the worship of Christ. Show the world they we have died to ourselves to show them the love of the gospel.

To take the gospel to the ends of the earth. We talked a good bit about it last week, about what it means to go.

So when we say go, we mean go. Where ever you are, take the gospel.

Going back to our Boston friends, they had to forge christian community because there wasn’t one where they were at, they literally had to create the christian community.

So what does a church do? Preach the gospel, meet the needs of the community, both physical and spiritual, and worship Christ risen from the dead. That is the prime directive of the church. That is what the church does gathered and going.

P2Christ

So, what does this mean for us?

If we are going to rightly worship the lord, we need to have a right understanding of the church. That a church must preach sound theology, the church must be mission minded and the church must be one that is life giving in community.

SO that when we confess the holy catholic church, we are not giving a shout out to the Roman Catholics, but to the universal church all on the same mission to get the gospel to the ends of the earth.

SO for some of us, we may need to reexamine our relationship with the church. Yeah, you might be here on Wednesdays but I do want to tell you that we are a part of a broader church, we are just one facet of the whole church that we call FBC Gray. The last thing I want to do to the student ministry is make us an island. We are connected to the other ministries. We are connected to the whole church, and it gets together on Sundays, and we need to be there. This is a church service in here, modeled after what we do on Sundays, but I don’t want this to replace Sundays. I know there are extenuating circumstances sometimes for Sundays but on the whole, reexamine your relationship to the church as a whole. Are you here to join in the mission of to spectate. Honestly, the church should have no spectators, but those who are on the field.

Then for some of you, this is new to you, and that’s okay. You may have never been to a church before or a part of a church before, thats okay we are here for you, and want to invite you in to the family. Because here’s the thing, church is family, but there are no aquantineces in the church, only family. And the only way to be in the family, is know Christ as savior and Lord, and so, I want to invite you to do that. If you have never come to know Christ as savior and Lord, come talk to me. If you have questions about that, come talk to me.

the kingdom is at hand. So what we are going to do herein just a second is I’m gonna pray, we are going to confess, then we are going to sing, so what I want you to do, is answer the question , do I know Jesus as savior and Lord.

y’all pray with me.

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

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,       who was conceived by the Holy Spirit       and born of the virgin Mary.       He suffered under Pontius Pilate,       was crucified, died, and was buried;       he descended to hell.       The third day he rose again from the dead.       He ascended to heaven       and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.       From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

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