Has you ever heard someone say, “I don’t go to church, but I experience God in the mountains.” or “beach” or name your favorite spot to relax.

Or how about, “I’m not religious, but I’ve a very spiritual person.”

I want to absolutely affirm that you can experience God in the mountains and at the beach and at your favorite place to relax. When it comes to religion, it doesn’t take much reflection to see the ways that religion has been used in the most negative of ways. As we read the gospels it seems that Jesus was in constant conflict with the religious establishment of the day. So, why should we be any different?

The question presenting itself for all of us is, “What do you believe?”

People will say, “I believe in god,” to which one may ask, which one? Describe your god. Even some we might consider religious say, “I believe in God,” and James challenges us: James 2:19

James 2:19 NIV

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

We seldom think about what a demon might believe. In reality we seldom think about demons, but thats a sermon for a different day. If an enemy of God believes there is one God how do you and I differentiate ourselves as believers, as Christians from the non-religious “spiritual” people around us?

There are those who will tell you its based on what you do. One statement I’ve heard several times in recent months is: Jesus taught us what to do; it took 300 years for man to tell us what to believe. Well, not exactly.

Matthew 15:11 ESV

it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

Matthew 15:18 ESV

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

So its about what at our core. You can do all the good things, feed the poor, clothe the naked, etc. All those are good things, but you must have a core from which that flows. The Apostle Paul wrote: 1 Cor 13:1-3

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

What we call the Apostles Creed is a statement of faith that is not to tell us what to believe, but helps us summarize how the Christian church differentiates itself from those who might consider themselves spiritual but never define what spirit it is they follow.

The Apostles Creed is not anywhere in our biblical canon. You can read all 66 books in our Bibles, reading cover to cover, and you will not find the Apostles Creed written out anywhere in there.

For the next several weeks we are going to be on a journey through the Apostles Creed. We’re going to examine what it says about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and you and I as the Church.

So we begin with the first two words:

I Believe…

The first thing you will notice about the Apostles creed is that it written in the first person SINGULAR - not PLURAL like some other creeds. For instance the Nicene Creed begins, WE believe - the Apostles Creed was a personal statement of faith.

Who is it that believes this? In reciting this creed each person reciting it is proclaiming their faith.

The second word of the creed is believe. The Oxford English dictionary tell us:

Concise Oxford English Dictionary Believe

believe

■ verb

1 feel sure that (something) is true.

▶ accept the statement of (someone) as true.

▶ have religious faith.

2 (believe in) have faith in the truth or existence of.

3 (believe in) have confidence in.

I Believe…

As you and I are making this statement it is not something we should make mindlessly, or rotely. For centuries it has been a part of preparing for baptism and church membership.

It likely has its roots much earlier than the Nicene creed though since it wasn’t in its current “final” form the Nicene Creed gets credit for being an earlier formal creed.

I want to make a plug for memorization here. Memorizing Bible verses and passages, memorizing prayers, memorizing statements of faith can be a source of incredible comfort in times of stress, sadness, fear, grief, as well as encouragement to keep pressing forward and growing in our faith.

Where memorization and rote recitation fails is when we don’t engage with what it is that we’re saying. Many expressed how our journey through the Lord’s prayer helped to make it so much more meaningful. People said they now slowed down when they recited it, they thought about what it is they are saying…they are internalizing it.

The challenge for us as we make this statement, “I believe…” is do we really believe it? We can say we believe it, but when it comes to putting our faith into action does that belief come up short?

The great tightrope walker Blondin was famous for his performances walking tightropes like in 1860 at Niagara Falls. He would walk the 1100 foot rope stretched between the US and Canadian sides, 160 feet above the raging waters. He walked it forward, backward, once with a wheelbarrow, he did it once at night walking halfway across in the brightly lit spotlights and then asked that the lights be turned out and completed the trip in total darkness. He walked it blindfolded. People were amazed and gained such confidence in him. Their confidence was absolute! On one occasion he asked the crowd if they believed he could carry a man across the falls on his back. The crowd yelled and cheered: “of course you can!” “You’re amazing!” “Yes! You could easily do that.” So then he asked, “Whose willing to get on my back?”

As you can imagine the crowd fell silent. Will you sir? How about you? You? No one would take him up on it. Finally his manager agreed to ride on his back. His manager trembled so much during the trip that upon completing the feat Blondin swore he’d never do a trip with another stunt with a human again.

Faith without action is dead. Again in James, we read near the opening of the letter: James 1:22-24

James 1:22–24 ESV

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

As we go through the creed, my hope is that it will help you not just have a way to express your faith, but a desire to live that faith out.

Say what you believe, believe what you say.

I Believe…

What you believe determines a lot about how you behave. Perhaps the most clear expression of this was when I was on the Screamer at Capernwray Harbor Bible Centre (a shameless plug for Men’s Conference). The Screamer as they call it is a 40 foot utility pole with a 8 inch disk at the very top. Back on the ground our facilitator was leading us through our safety discussion and asked for a volunteer to come stand on a stump that rose out of the ground. The man walked over and immediately hopped up on the stump. Then our facilitator asked, “Was that hard?” No, said the volunteer. “Are you having trouble with balance?” No, the man said.

Then the lesson, “The stump you’re standing on is 8” in diameter. The disk on the top of that pole is 8” in diameter. Fear is a liar. It will tell you, ‘you can’t,’ but the truth is you can.”

The Apostles Creed reminds us who it is that we place our trust in. Knowing the creed will help us have faith in the one whom we say we put our trust. Knowing it helps us live that faith out. I hope you’ll join us in the next few weeks as we take this journey together.

To God be the glory! AMEN