6. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints

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I believe in the Holy Spirit.

That’s how the next section of our Creed continues. The observant will have noticed that the Creed moves carefully through each person of the Trinity…. we began with “I believe in God, the Father almighty…”

We moved onto “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord…”

And today we reach “I believe in the Holy Spirit”.

Isn’t it interesting that we get to the work of the Holy Spirit, BEFORE the Creed talks about forgiveness of sins…. or the church…. or the eternal life (or whatever).

Isn’t that interesting? I guess there are two reasons for that..

firstly - the Creed has started by talking about God - so we ought to get through all THREE persons in the Godhead..

But more fundamentally… YES the Father creates the world and sends his son to save us… YES the Son (Jesus) comes to do his saving work…. but the person of the Trinity who takes that work and APPLIES it to our lives… is God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus has gloriously died on the cross for the sins of his people… but without the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts we would never receive Christ, and all of his benefits.

Which is a way of saying… the work of the Holy Spirit is UTTERLY CRUCIAL to the Christian life.

And today you’ll see we’re going to focus on the work of the Holy Spirit…. and we’re going to see ONE of the things that he does - he brings the CHURCH into being!

So today’s section of the Creed says….

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“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy catholic Church, the Communion of Saints….”

And you’ll see that cashes out into three headings on your sheet. (ELGIN - here’s the first…)

BUT…. BUT, before we get anywhere near that. We’re going to rewind and briefly deal with something from a previous week that some have asked questions about. You’ll see this in the little box on your sheet along with the heading….

He descended into what?

Earlier on in the Creed we read..

I believe in Jesus Christ, his 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.

Earlier versions of the Creed actually say “he descended into hell”.

Here’s the question people ask. Where did Jesus go during the three days his body was in the tomb? Specifically they look at the Creed and ask - did Jesus go into hell. You can understand why they might think that when they read “he descended to the dead” or “he descended into hell”.

Some people will try to support this idea by quoting this very tricky verse from 1 Peter 3. SLIDE

1 Peter 3:18–19 NIV

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—

So when Jesus died, did he go and do something in hell? The answer, I think, is NO.

There are a number of problems with this idea… here are a few of them.

Firstly this verse in 1 Peter is notoriously difficult to understand and interpret. It is ALWAYS a bad idea to take one verse in the Bible, particularly a verse which all commentators is difficult to understand, and use it to build a whole great doctrine.

Secondly when Jesus is dying on the cross and speaking to the repentant criminal on his right hand side, what does he say? He says TODAY you will be with me in paradise. Jesus seems to believe NOT that he’s going into hell, but that he is returning to his Father.

Thirdly, remember the parable Jesus tells about the rich man and Lazarus, he says that nobody can move from hell to heaven (or vice versa).

So in what sense does Jesus experience death and hell? The settled view of reformed Christians (like us) is that Jesus experiences it ON THE CROSS. Think about it this way - what is Jesus doing on the cross? He is is paying the price of OUR sin. What is that price? it’s death (of course - that’s why he has to die) but it’s also judgement - the judgement of bearing the wrath of the Father at sin…. being cut off from the Father because of our sin - which is why he cries out quoting the words of Psalm 22 SLIDE ’My God my God, why have you forsaken me?”

As RC Sproul puts it…. SLIDE

“To be forsaken, to be cut off by God, brings with it the full torment on hell”.

And so in THAT sense - Jesus endures, or enters into death and hell, and he does it FOR US. Isn’t that wonderful?

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But now… back to the Holy Spirit who is the one who takes and applies this good news to our hearts.

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1. God’s Empowering Spirit

So God is Trinity - one God in three persons… and so From the creating work of the Father and the rescue work of the Son, it turns to the re-creating work of the Spirit

If you remember nothing else today, remember this - God the Holy Spirit is utterly vital to the Christian life. You would not be a believer if it wasn’t for the work of the Spirit…. you would not be sustained and empowered to live as a Christian, if it were not for the work of God’s Holy Spirit.

So when we say in the Creed “I believe in the Holy Spirit” - what does God’s Spirit do? Well at least five things, very briefly…

The Holy Spirit is

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The Spirit of Creation

Remember Genesis 1? SLIDE

Genesis 1:1–2 NIV

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Creation happens through God’s WORD (he speaks) and by the power of his SPIRIT!

From the beginning God’s WORD and God’s SPIRIT go together. So he is (secondly) SLIDE

The Spirit of the Word

As we reach scripture God speaks - for example - through OT prophets… Isaiah, Jeremiah, Eekiel, Amos… and so on. How does this happen? Through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Listen, for example, to the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 61.1 SLIDE

Isaiah 61:1 NIV

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

We, of course, are in a much more privileged position than God’s people in Isaiah’s day…. we have the complete revelation, the whole WORD of God in our hands before us.

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By the way… How should we understand the way the Bible was written? How did it come to be? We call it GOD’S WORD after all - and rightly so. But of course it also had HUMAN authors - like Matthew and Isaiah, and Paul and all the rest.

The apostle Peter gives us such a helpful summary when he says… SLIDE

2 Peter 1:21 NIV

21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes you hear people make a very foolish division… you’ll hear folk speaking about a particular church and they’ll say ‘oh is that a Spirit filled church?’…. ‘or is it more one of those (kind of) Bible teaching churches?”

That’s the division who’ll hear people make - Spirit church or a Bible church… Can you see how foolish that division is? The Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible! Men spoke from God AS they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. No Holy Spirit, no Bible.

We must be spirit filled and Bible centred, to say you can be one without the other makes no sense at all.

And not just because the Holy Spirit is the author of scripture. Also because the Holy Spirit is… SLIDE

The Spirit of Conversion

Simply put, here’s what that means.

Without the work of God the Holy Spirit in your life, you would not be a Christian. We in our sinful rebellion would not have chosen Jesus, had he not first worked in us by his Spirit.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 12.3 SLIDE

1 Corinthians 12:3 NIV

3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

Of course anyone can say those words - but no one cn means them…. no one can receive Jesus as Saviour and Lord without the work of the Holy Spirit.

Think of the implications. When we are seeking to share the gospel… so people will be saved… to that our church will grow - to become three vibrant all age congregations of 100 disciples… not a single part of that will be any any way possible, unless God moves by his Holy Spirit.

RIFF - I’ve witnessed this - Christianity Explored - Christmas talk with bad kids behaviour

No-one comes to faith without the profound inward work of the Holy Spirit. That means there is no such thing as a Christian who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit. There aren’t Spirit filled Christians and non Spirit filled Christians. There are only Spirit Filled Christians and NON-Christians.

God the Holy Spirit - he’s the spirit of creation, the spirit of the Word, the spirit of conversion… he’s also (next)…

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The Spirit of Christ

The relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit is crucial.

For a start, Jesus himself was (what did our creed say?) - SLIDE conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit (so that he could be born of the virgin Mary).

Holy Spirit also empowers JESUS own ministry. Have you noticed that? What happens at Jesus baptism - that moment that marks the beginning of his formal ministry?

The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus. But not just descends on him temporarily… but remains with him.

Listen to John the Baptist (speaking about Jesus)… SLIDE

John 1:33 NIV

33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’

Shortly after we read in Luke…. SLIDE

Luke 4:1 NIV

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Later on the book of Hebrews tells us that even Jesus work on the cross is empowered by the Spirit. SLIDE

Hebrews 9:14 (NIV)

14 …Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God…

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And once he is raised…. he tells the disciples he is going away - back to the Father (remember, we heard this last week) and the disciples are distressed and part of Jesus comforting them and reassuring them is him saying…

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John 16:7 NIV

7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

Who is this advocate? It’s the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ… he empowers Jesus ministry…. he is the advocate Jesus sends… the work of the Holy Spirit is, therefore, always to lead us to Jesus, the saviour.

If someone claims to be Spirit Filled…. or if someone claims they are goign to teach you about the ministry of the Holy Spirt… but then they rarely mention Jesus - be very suspicious.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.

He’s also… SLIDE

The Spirit of Equipping & Fruitfulness

It isn’t Just Jesus who is empowered by the Spirit of God. At various times in the OT we see the Spirit descend (albeit temporarily) on kings of judges, or prophets to empower their work.

Again how much more priviliged are we to have God’s spirit who gifts us and empowers us…. not just to be saved by Jesus… but to be changed more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit grows in US as God’s people his fruits. What are the fruits of the Spirit? To be it another way what is the evidence that we really are Christian people - that we really do know Jesus as saviour and Lord?….

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Galatians 5:22–23 NIV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

God’s empowering Spirit isn’t just for individuals… the Christian life isnt’ a life lived in isolation - it’s a life lived in Christian family. And that’s exactly where the Creed takes us next.

Point no two… SLIDE

2. God’s catholic Community

The story is told (I’m not sure if it’s true) but anyway the story is told SLIDE of a man travelling alone on a planec. The woman in the seat beside him strikes up conversation, after a few niceties the conversation turned to that predictable question - “so what do you do for a living” she asked the man.

The man though for a moment. Oh I work for a global organisation he replied. Actually I’m flying out to visit one of our other branches.

The woman was impressed - “it sounds very exciting” she replied. “do you have branches in many countries then”.

“Oh, almost every single country” he replied…. {in many nations we have thousands or tens of thousands of outlets”. He went on “Our literature is among the best selling of all time, and each week our branches measure footfall in the the Billions - people from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds, and skin colours, young and old, rich and poor”.

By this stage the woman could hardly contain her excitement - she began to wonder why this man was sitting in cattle class instead of first class (he sounded very important). Fit to burst with curiosity she blurted out “well go on then, tell me - who do you work for?”

“I’m a Christian minister” said the man… I work for the church of Jesus Christ.

It’s a bit of a cheesy story (and it’s probably not a true story) but it does make a true point.

SLIDE - BACK TO GOD’S CATHOLIC COMMUNITY

Jesus’ church is NO small thing. We are part of something truly world changing and amazing. The church is (as the heading says) - God’s catholic community.

Now, Straight away please notice the small c in catholic. This is NOT a statement that we are Roman Catholic, far from it. The word catholic simply means universal.

Here is the key truth that… though the church may exist in different places, within varied cultures, and even within a series of denominations… at heart there is only one, universal church… of Jesus Christ.

By the work of his Holy Spirit, Jesus is drawing men and women and boys and girls from all nations, people groups and places to trust in himself and his work at the cross…. for the forgiveness of sins.

It’s wonderful true, of course, that Jesus loves and cares for EACH ONE of his people… in his death and resurrection he pays for YOUR sin. But here’s the thing… living as a forgiven child of God is NOT a solo sport. If you know God as your father…. fellow Christians become your brothers and sisters.

RIFF - isn’t it great to go somewhere completely foreign…. and yet find family. EX - Ukraine.

- A concern for world mission

- An appetite for gospel partnership / locally / limits of partnership (why we call it ‘GOSPEL’ partnership).

So it is a catholic church… we are also to be a HOLY catholic church. Holy meaning set apart, called out from the world, to be different to the culture all around us. We will stick out and be different in the way we think and the ways we act.

Listen to the apostle Peter, we heard these words read earlier. SLIDE

1 Peter 2:5 NIV

5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

RIFF - image is of the temple, the holy place where God dwells - WE are now that place.

Read on, v9…. SLIDE

1 Peter 2:9 NIV

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

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There is so much we could say about the church - the church is ordered, governed by elders, images like a body - every part is needed, or a building - the new temple a dwelling for the HS, Jesus tells us that the gates of hell will never prevail agaisnt the church…. (although individual congregations don’t have a God-given write to always exist), time is against us….

Know this…. the church is precious, and wonderful. It is exciting and dynamic, shame on us if we’ve ever made it seem dull.

The church is God’s catholic community…. but there’s one more staggering thing to see about the church, because it is also….

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3. God’s Cosmic Community

Bit of theology now.

The theologians helpfully distinguish between the SLIDE visible and the invisible church.

The VISIBLE church (as the name suggests) is the church you can SEE - not the building of course but PEOPLE… so the visible church might be - the names written on a church membership roll… or the faces you see here on a Sunday morning.

We distinguish that from the INVISIBLE church because, of course, it is possible… to come along on a Sunday… to sing the songs, to drink the tea… it’s possible even to join a small group or (even) to become a church member… and yet not really be a Christian. By the way that should be a warning to us ALL.

Have we really received Jesus as OUR lord and OUR saviour. You can attend church events all you like (and that’s a GOOD thing to do by the way) but only receiving Jesus as Lord counts.

It has often been said that, on the great day of judgement, there will be some awful shocks… as it’s revealed who really trusted Christ.

Are we sold out servants on the gospel ship, or just passive passengers on a church pleasure cruise?

Of course we trust that many members of the VISIBLE church are ALSO INDEED members of the invisible church - it’s called invisible because ultimately only the Lord sees and knows who belongs to him.

But of course when you think about that invisible church - that is those people who really truly belong to Jesus, who really truly know him as saviour and Lord…. we can sub-divide that down again - into what we call the SLIDE church militant and the church triumphant.

The church militant is US. Those following Jesus here on earth. We’re called militant not because our job is to start trouble…. but because we ARE here to fight.

Remember what Paul says to Timothy… SLIDE

1 Timothy 6:12 NIV

12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

We have a three-fold conflict…. against the world (temptation from sin around us). The FLESH (temptation to sin from within us) and the Devil - Satan himself, (temptation from the powers of evil).

But as we continue to fight there is ENCOURAGEMENT in knowing that we are part of the SAME church as those Christian brothers and sisters who have gone before us…. - the church triumphant (we call them)… the ones who have fought the good fight, kept the faith, and finished their earthly race.

I love what Hebrews 12 says… SLIDE

Hebrews 12:22–24 (NIV)

22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect…

We are part of the same church as (what Hebrews elsewhere calls) a great cloud of witnesses.

That’s one reason knowing some church history…. or reading some Christian biographies can be so helpful to us… and of course (most of all) we have those heros of the faith ewe meet in scripture… not perfect but people of faith - their stories, their witness is to encourage us along….

as those who… believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints.

Let’s pray.