A Case for the Creed

Lead Vocalist (Joel)

Welcome & Announcements (Jason)

Good morning family!

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Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (1 Chronicles 16:8-10)

Prayer of Praise (Gloria Insley)

Reformation Song

Rock of Ages

Prayer of Confession (Jim Lewis), Apathy

Assurance of Pardon (Isaiah 57:15)

Kingdom Partner Update (Justin & Angie Ham)

How Firm a Foundation

Scripture Reading (Jude 1-3)

You can find it on page _________ in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Jason)

Prayer for PBC—Faithful preaching

Prayer for kingdom partner—Ham, Justin & Angie (IMB)

Prayer for US—Federal & state courts

Prayer for the world—Zambia

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

Picture yourself as a general tasked with defending a fortress under relentless siege.

For 20 grueling weeks, your predecessors stood firm, holding the walls against overwhelming odds. Many were wounded, and countless gave their lives, especially in the brutal first four weeks of the war. Many have sacrificed everything to protect this vital stronghold. Now, the burden falls to you to carry on their fight, to safeguard the city they died for.

If you were given this responsibility, and given access to a battle plan created by the brave leaders who held the fortress during the first month of the war, would you ignore that battle plan? Would you dare take up this charge blind to the hard-won strategies of those who faithfully kept the enemy at bay? Would you dismiss their victories and start anew, as if their blood and brilliance meant nothing? Or would you study their courage, their tactics, their resolve—honoring those who risked all to defend what you now hold?

In some ways, the Christian church is like a fortress under siege.

Our job, as Jason read a moment ago from Jude 3, is to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”

For 20 centuries, the saints who have gone before us have done just that, often against overwhelming odds.

Many faced torment, and countless gave their lives to preserve the truth we proclaim today—especially in the church’s first four centuries. Now, in the 21st century, we are called to guard this same faith, entrusted to us by their sacrifice.

Yet too many Christians take up this duty oblivious to the wisdom of those who held the line for 2,000 years. Too many ignore or abandon the convictions that our predecessors died to defend.

Today we’re going to begin a seven-week study on the theology in an ancient document called the Nicene Creed.

Think of it as an ancient battle plan, created by the brave saints who faithfully contended for the faith in the early church.

Just like a good general will have a hard time defending a fortress if he ignores the wisdom of his predecessors, a Christian will have a hard time defending the faith if we ignore those who worked painstakingly to define what it is that Christians believe.

As we begin, please understand this series will be a bit different from what we normally do on Sunday mornings at PBC.

Typically our practice is to study books of the Bible verse-by-verse.

Why would we break away from that pattern to study something other than the Bible?

No, we’re not going to study the Bible in the same way in this series. But I would argue that we will be studying what the Bible teaches.

But in order to do that over the next six weeks, I need to begin by making a case for the Nicene Creed.

The Big Idea I hope to communicate with God’s help today is that The Nicene Creed is an important tool to help us contend for the faith.

To do that, I want to ask and answer Two Questions About the Nicene Creed:

First, WHAT is the Nicene Creed?

Second, WHY Study the Nicene Creed?

1) WHAT is the Nicene Creed?

To understand the Nicene Creed, you need to understand the history of the church up to that point.

SHOW TIMELINE

Shortly after the book of Acts ends, persecution intensified under emperor Nero, who blamed Christians for the fire in Rome in 64 AD.

In the 2nd century persecution grew, but so did the church.

It was during this time that a pastor named Tertullian famously said “The blood of the martyrs is seed.” God was using suffering to grow His church.

The same thing happened in the 3rd century.

Some estimate as many as 10% of the Roman empire were Christian by the year 300 AD.

At the beginning of the 4th century, persecution reached its peak in the Roman empire. Emperor Diocletian launched a systematic attack on Christians called the Great Persecution. He destroyed scriptures, burned church buildings, and enslaved and killed thousands of followers of Jesus.

And then, in the year 313 AD the emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which made Christianity legal.

Contrary to popular belief, Constantine did not make Christianity the official religion of the empire, but he did end the state-sponsored persecution of Christians.

Now, as an American, I believe religious freedom is a good thing.

I am grateful that Christians in this country are not hunted down and enslaved or killed.

I’m grateful the government isn’t trying to burn our buildings or confiscate our property.

But do you know what often happens when God’s people aren’t dealing with external threats? The internal threats ratchet up.

And that’s what was happening in the early church.

Five years after Christianity became legal, the Arian Controversy began.

Arius was a pastor in Alexandria, Egypt, which in that day was one of the most influential churches in the world. [1]

The controversy began when Arius started teaching strange things about Jesus. Things like...

“There was once [a time] when he was not.” [2]

And “the Son has a beginning, but God is without beginning.” [3]

And although Arius admitted God was Trinity, He argued that the three persons were “not equal in glories.” [4]

Arius’ teaching caused quite a stir in the Empire.

Pastor rose against pastor, church against church, region against region.

To help keep the peace, Emperor Constantine summoned 318 bishops to a council in Nicaea, which is now the town if Iznik, Turkey—not far from the modern city of Istanbul.

SHOW NICAEA MAP

The Council of Nicaea met from May-June in 325 AD, which means we’ll be studying the Nicene Creed exactly 1700 years after it all started.

Technically speaking, the Nicene Creed we know today wasn’t finalized until 381, but the theology the creed affirms was fleshed out 1700 years ago.

Think of the creed as a battle plan to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

No, it doesn’t address everything Christians believe. It doesn’t help us combat every error. But it does help us to combat errors related to the doctrine of the Trinity.

And if we neglect its teaching, we do so to our own peril.

As many have said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

One way we’re going to work to remember the past is to read the creed out loud together.

In the weeks ahead we’ll do this right before the pastoral prayer, but I wanted to explain a few things before we do this for the first time.

First, nobody is going to make you do this.

If you don’t believe it, don’t say it. But if you do, I’d encourage you to rejoice at an opportunity to say out loud what it is that you believe.

Second, don’t get turned off by the fact that we’re reciting this out loud.

Some people complain that reciting things like this out loud turns into empty formalism.

But it’s funny how nobody complains about that when we’re talking about music.

Can’t singing lyrics from a song out loud turn into empty formalism just as easily as reading words from a creed?

The issue isn’t the words in the song or the creed, it’s your heart.

So yes, reading this out loud can turn into empty formalism. But don’t let it! Let the words we repeat in the creed be an act of worship, as you publicly state before God and His people what you believe!

Third, let me explain a word from the creed that trips up we Baptists especially.

The last paragraph of the creed says “we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.”

That word “catholic” is NOT referring to the Roman Catholic church. The Roman Catholic Church as we know it today didn’t even exist back then. [5]

The word literally means “universal” in the original language of the creed.

So when we say we believe in one catholic church, we’re saying we believe there is one church for everybody.

There’s not a Christianity for white people and another for black people; one for men and one for women; one for Americans and one for everybody else; one for modern believers and a different type of Christianity for the ancient world.

So when you read that word “catholic” just think that there is only one Christianity and one universal church for all people everywhere!

Or as Jude 3 says, we need to contend for the faith, not the faiths.

Alright, let’s recite the creed together. [6]

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,

begotten of His Father before all worlds,

God of God, Light of Light,

very God of very God,

begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;

by whom all things were made;

who for us and for our salvation

came down from heaven,

and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary,

and was made man;

and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered and was buried;

and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures,

and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father;

and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead;

whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son;

who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified;

who spoke by the prophets;

and we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church;

we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;

and we look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

That’s the answer to our first question, what is the creed?

Now let’s consider our second question...

2) WHY Study the Nicene Creed?

Let me give you four reasons…

A) It is a SUMMARY of Christian Doctrine

Jude 3 says “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”

What does that mean? What does it mean to contend for the faith?

Someone might respond, “it means to defend the Bible.”

But here’s the problem: every heretic has a Bible verse.

Jehovah’s Witness use the Bible to argue the same thing Arius argued 1700 years ago, that Jesus is a created being.

Mormons use the Bible to argue that humans can become gods.

Oneness Pentecostals use the Bible to argue that God is not Trinity.

Unitarian Universalists use the Bible to argue against the reality of hell.

And liberal Christians today use the Bible to reject the Bible’s teaching on sex and marriage.

So contending for the faith means more than just defending the Bible. It means defending the right interpretation of the Bible.

We use creeds, catechisms, statements of faith, and even outlines like “Creator/Curse/Christ/Call” or “God/Man/Christ Response” to summarize what the Bible teaches.

Someone might respond, “I’ll just use the Bible, thank you very much!”

“No creed but the Bible!”

That might sound nice as a pithy little soundbite, but it’s actually not true.

In his book Crisis of Confidence Carl Trueman explains why: “all churches and all Christians have a creed . . . . no Christian, if asked by a friend what the Bible teaches, is simply going to start reading aloud at Genesis 1:1 and not stop until Revelation 22:21. Instead, when asked by friends what the Bible teaches, we all try to offer a synthesis, a summary of what the Bible says. And as we move from biblical text to theological statement, we offer what is, in terms of content something akin to a creed. . . .” [7]

When someone says “No creed but the Bible!” it sounds really nice. It seems like a very strong declaration of trust in the Scriptures.

But the problem is there’s no way to test an unwritten creed by what the Bible actually says.

You can take the words in the Nicene Creed and test them by what the Bible says. But you can’t do that with a creed that exists only in your head!

Someone might respond, “Well how can I be sure this creed is actually right?”

Well, you can open up your Bible and compare what the creed says with what the Bible says.

That’s what I hope to be doing over the next few weeks.

You can also trust the countless Christians over the past two thousand years who have affirmed the Nicene Creed as a faithful summary of Christian doctrine.

In his book on the creed, Kevin DeYoung writes, “As arguably the most important doctrinal statement in the history of the church, the Nicene Creed is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox churches, and every branch of Protestant Christianity.” [8]

And by the way, that includes PBC. Believe it or not, this church has a line in our statement of faith affirming the Nicene Creed.

So let’s study the Nicene Creed as a summary of Christian doctrine.

Notice I said this is A summary. It is not THE summary, as if all you need to know is found is this creed.

There are a lot of important things we believe that the Nicene Creed doesn’t talk about!

As Kevin DeYoung writes, it is a doctrinal floor, not a doctrinal ceiling. [9]

We should know and study the Nicene Creed because it’s a helpful summary of basic Christian doctrine.

But also because...

B) It is a STANDARD for Christian Discernment

Notice I said the Nicene Creed is A standard, not THE standard.

Christians have always believed that the Bible is the ultimate standard for truth.

And yet, the Nicene Creed can still help us as a standard, as long as we recognize it’s not the ultimate standard.

Think about how you tell time. Maybe you have a watch, maybe a clock on your wall, maybe you ask Alexa, or maybe you just use your phone.

Whatever the case, most of us have something that gives us the time.

And for all practical purposes, it works. You show up to appointments on time and you get to church right after the announcements—close enough.

But here’s the thing: that timekeeping device isn’t the ultimate standard for time.

The agreed-upon standard for time is called Coordinated Universal Time and it’s determined by scientists all over the world using crazy-precise instruments called atomic clocks that measure vibrations in atoms. Together the atomic clocks in the US, France, Japan and elsewhere establish the ultimate standard for measuring time.

It would be highly inconvenient if you had to go to Boulder, Paris, or Tokyo to figure out what time it was. Having a secondary standard like your watch or your phone is incredibly helpful.

The Bible is like the atomic clocks, it’s the ultimate standard. The Bible isn’t a summary of truth; it IS truth.

And the Nicene Creed is like your watch—it’s a helpful, time-tested tool to summarize the core truths of the Christian faith.

So how can the Nicene Creed help us as a standard?

The Nicene Creed can help us discern a true church from a false church.

We can confidently say Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, Christian Scientists, and Unitarian Universalists are NOT Christian because they reject the Nicene Creed.

These so-called Christian churches are actually false churches. They’re wolves in sheep’s clothing, and every true Christian should stay away!

The Nicene Creed can also help us discern a true Christian from a false Christian.

At PBC we sometimes talk about first, second, and third-level issues.

SHOW THEOLOGICAL TRIAGE IMAGE

Third-level issues are important, but not worth dividing over. These are things we can agree to disagree about and still go to church together.

This would include disagreements over things like schooling for our kids, the celebration of certain holidays, the consumption of alcohol the best Bible translation, and certain ideas about the return of Jesus.

Second-level issues are critical for church unity. These are the types of issues that separate churches.

These include disagreements over things like who gets baptized, how to administer baptism, church leadership, and speaking in tongues.

But first-level issues are essential to Christianity. These are the types of things you cannot knowingly disagree with and be a Christian.

Now I said that last sentence very carefully.

You cannot knowingly disagree with first-level issues and be a Christian.

You might find a Christian—maybe a young child or someone like the thief on the cross—who doesn’t know much about the doctrine of the Trinity. But if that person is a true Christian, they won’t reject the truth about the Trinity when they learn about it.

I would argue that the doctrines in the Nicene Creed are all first-level issues.

It is, as Justin Holcomb writes, a “minimum of Christian belief.” [9]

I would also argue that when Jude 3 says to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” he isn’t talking about our beliefs on alcohol or Bible translations or holidays or spiritual gifts or how to baptize people. I think he’s talking about first-level doctrinal issues.

We should know and study the Nicene Creed because it’s a helpful standard for Christian discernment.

But also because...

C) It is a SYLLABUS for Christian Discipleship

Just like a syllabus provides an outline of what you will study in a particular class, the Nicene Creed offers us a list of the things you should learn about to faithfully follow Jesus.

Just think about some of the topics covered in the creed...

Creation, the Trinity, the incarnation of Jesus, His death and resurrection, His return, the role of the Holy Spirit, the importance of the church, baptism, and the hope of heaven.

Which of those topics would you eliminate from your syllabus for a Christian disciple? Which one of them is unnecessary?

Perhaps you hear that list and all you can think of are all the things that are missing.

“Isn’t discipleship supposed to be more practical? What about topics like money, work, marriage, sex, parenting, etc.?”

The fact that we don’t see the practical relevance of Christian doctrine shows how spiritually immature we have become.

Years ago I was a young student at a seminary in Memphis, Tennessee.

This particular school required us to evangelize every week, and then present a report on our evangelism efforts. Once a week we had something called “report hour” where people would share testimonies about their evangelism efforts with the rest of the school.

I remember one week a young lady went to the front and shared about a conversation she had with a Jehovah’s Witness. She ended her report by saying, “after talking to this person, I realized ‘I believe in Jehovah. And I believe in witnessing, so I guess I’m a Jehovah’s Witness too! I guess we’re all Jehovah’s Witnesses!!!”

I was shocked to learn that a young woman in a Baptist seminary didn’t understand the different between biblical Christianity and a heretical cult like the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

But the reality is there may be many of you in the same boat.

This is why we need things like the Nicene Creed to grow us in our Christian discipleship.

Pick up one of the books about the creed to help you go deeper over the next seven weeks.

Or pick up one of our Nicene Creed Family Worship Guides to use for family worship, or for your own personal devotions.

Consider memorizing the creed as well, and if you have young kids, challenge them to do so!

We should know and study the Nicene Creed because it can function as a syllabus for Christian discipleship.

But finally because...

D) It is a STIMULUS to Christian Doxology

That word doxology literally means “praise.”

There’s a vast misconception that doctrine is dry, cold, dusty, and sterile.

But the truth is, faithful doctrine is like gasoline on the fire of our worship.

Jude 3–4—Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Do you see the connection between doctrine and worship?

Those who twist the truth and corrupt it end up denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

It wouldn’t be a compliment if I praised my wife for single-handedly winning World War 2. In order to praise my wife, I need to know who she is.

The same is true for our God. You cannot faithfully worship Him if you don’t know who He is.

And the Nicene Creed stimulates our worship by helping us to see who God truly is:

He is God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

He is God the Son, begotten not made.

He is God the Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.

We should know and study the Nicene Creed?

Because it’s a summary of Christian doctrine.

It’s a standard for Christian discernment.

It’s a syllabus for Christian discipleship.

And it’s a stimulus to Christian doxology.

For all these reasons, I believe the Nicene Creed is an important tool to help us contend for the faith.

If you and I could go back to May 325 as the council of Nicaea began, we would likely be shocked by what we would see. Men with missing eyes, missing hands, visible limps, and visible scars on their bodies from the persecution inflicted by Diocletian a few short years earlier.

These were not ivory tower theologians, arguing about impractical matters unimportant to the Christian life.

These were men who bore in their own bodies the evidence that they had faithfully contended for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

But as powerful as those stories are, it is not their scars that will heal us.

The truth is we deserve far worse than the persecution those men endured. We deserve to be cut off from God forever in a place called hell.

But for us and for our salvation, Jesus came to this earth, lived a sinless life, died a sinner’s death, then rose from death so that we could have eternal life.

It is only by His scars that we are healed.

If you haven’t received the healing that only Jesus can offer, would you turn to Him today?

And if you have, won’t you commit to contend for this faith? Alongside all the saints of old, let’s fight to be faithful for the glory of King Jesus.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

There is One Gospel

Benediction (Jude 24-25)