Jesus: Now and Later; The Holy Spirit
Notes
Transcript
We’ve been talking about the Apostles’ Creed for several weeks. The history of this creed likely pre-dates the Nicene Creed of 325A.D., however its current form was established later so its often listed second in a group of confessions. The Apostles’ Creed has long been used as a baptismal confession and we often use it here when we celebrate communion. It is a communal type of confession as it states the core beliefs of the Christian church.
For those of you who have served as an elder in the presbyterian church, perhaps you’ve attended a presbytery meeting where a candidate for ordination as a minister of word and sacrament was being examined. Part of that examination is to hear their statement of faith. These statements are not only interesting, they show what is important to the candidate. Often they reveal what areas of faith have been challenged recently as candidates seek to responde to those challenges. That being said, I want to ask you a question.
Have you ever written out your statement of faith?
Have you ever written out your statement of faith?
The term creed comes from the word credo which means what I believe. You can use something like the Apostles’ Creed as a template speaking of what you believe about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Church, and you can add to that what you believe about the Bible, Baptism, Communion - all of these can be included in a statement of fatih.
Thus far in the Apostles’ Creed we’ve have brief statement about what we believe about God:
I believe in God, the Father, Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
and we went on from there to make several statements about what we believe about Jesus
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead, …
and that’s as far as we’ve gotten so far. So what happened after that?
He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
And that concludes the portion of the Apostles’ Creed about the person Jesus.
Ironically as we go on in the creed we only have one very simple statement regarding the third person in the Trinity.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;…
And that’s it.
Let’s take a few moments to talk about the last part about Jesus. We gloss over it so many times as we are excited about Jesus resurrection. A couple weeks ago as I shared with you I talked about how Jesus’ entire life and ministry is summed up by a simple, very small stroke of the pen - a comma.
Last week we discussed that Jesus descended to Hades not Gehenna. Hades being the place of the dead and Gehenna the place of the condemned. Unfortunately in English they are both translated as “hell”.
Now we see that after the resurrection Jesus rose and ascended to heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
What is this saying?
Seated on the right hand of God
Seated on the right hand of God
Clearly this is a statement that God is left handed, since Jesus is sitting on his right hand.
Okay, seriously. The person seated at the right hand of a host is considered to be the most favored and honored. Jesus is seated in the place of ultimate honor.
Most of us are good with that part. We’re good with the resurrection - the tomb was empty. Its what happens beyond that point that we in the church do not think much about, and we need to!
Jesus is seated in the place of honor at God’s right side, and the Scripture is clear - Jesus will return. And though that day will be a day of incredible triumph it will also be a day of judgment.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
As Christians we love to speak of Jesus’ ministry, we love to talk about the commands that Jesus gave for us to do, we love to speak of the forgiveness of sin paid for in the crucifixion, and then we come to this part of the Gospel and we like to gloss over it.
I heard a sermon once on a fourth of July weekend about liberty in our country. The pastor preaching that Sunday spoke about how other countries view our country and he made the statement: “What countries hate about our country is not liberty, but how it has been taken as license.”
That statement has stuck with me (obviously since I’m quoting it now). And I wonder how much we as Christians mistake our freedom in Christ with license to do whatever we want.
We don’t like to talk about judgment. We definitely chafe against others who would seek to judge us. We read Jesus’ sermon on the mount and the seventh chapter of Matthew opens with the words, “Do not judge lets you be judged…” James tells us that:
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law… There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
The truth is we tend to be very good at judging others, but what about ourselves?
In the Christian tradition many have used a type of self-reflection to examine themselves at the end of a day. It’s called the self-examen. Though it is true we are now under grace and free of the law of sin and death, Paul asks the question well:
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
and answers it as well:
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Again from Paul speaking of all the things he did to try and live according to the Law:
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ…
I believe in the Holy Ghost.
This statement almost feels like an after thought. The authors of the creed clearly were not making an emphasis of God nor the Holy Spirit. Yet the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is promised by God. Jesus said,
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
The Holy Spirit is described as the Helper, the Comforter.
These are real statements of faith within the creed.
As we prepare for communion and are about to recite this creed again as what WE believe, I want to encourage you again to write your own creed.
• What do you believe about God?
• What do you believe about Jesus?
• What do you believe about the Holy Spirit?
• What do you believe about the church?
• What do you believe about forgiveness of sin?
• What do you believe about the resurrection?
• What do you believe about eternal life?
Obviously I’m using the Apostles’ Creed as a template, but there are a lot of other statements of faith that are out there that speak to a depth of faith as well. We often use the Nicene Creed, but there are others, I think of the Westminster Confession - perhaps no other document has influenced the western world more than this confession of fatih. The Heidelberg Catechism, the Second Helvetic Confession, the Scots Confesson, Or the Barmen declaration and so many more.
As you explore statements of faith don’t just read what others have said they believe, think about what it is you believe, and as you do that do not forget to consider how you live that fatih out in your day to day lives. Hopefully you’re doing so all to the glory of God.
Let me pray for you.
Jesus: Now and Later; The Holy Spirit
Jesus: Now and Later; The Holy Spirit
