We Believe In

Starting new series today around what we believe as followers of Jesus.

We live in confusing times. My parents generation grew up listening to the voice of Walter Cronkite. There was trust that what we being received was accurate and factual. But over the last few decades we’ve seen a shift from network news to cable news where news isn’t only news. It’s commentary, conjecture, and opinion - not really news at all. TV has shifted from regular programs to reality TV - we all tune in to see who gets voted off the island. And now we’ve shifted from that to everyone carrying around their own camera, and we become our own reality TV show - “hey ya’ll, just sitting here this morning with my egg burrito made from egg whites and tofu”.

This latest shift means everyone is now an expert. Every has their own hot take on a situation. An event happens somewhere in the US, and within minutes there are dozens or hundreds of live-streamers going up to give their opinion of what happened and why. A lot of times its accompanied by images or video that are later revealed to be AI generated.

The result of all this is that we no longer know who to believe or what to believe. Popularity has supplanted reliability in many cases. “Well, they have 200k followers, so they must be legit.”

And the Christian world isn’t immune to these shifts. I know of a Vineyard pastor who has a coffee mug that says, “Don’t confuse your Google search for my theology degree.” I feel his pain. With our phones and Google we become our own experts. On any given day you’ll see Christians arguing over gender roles, nationalism vs patriotism, guns, immigrants, whether or not revival has come to Gen Z, and the all important issue of… yoga pants.

Not only has popularity supplanted reliability but Personal opinion has replaced veracity.

The question that swirls in our confusing times is, what’s true and what isn’t? What really matters and what doesn’t.

Reminds me of a story I heard - and this may have been on a Little House episode - that farmers on the prairie would tie a rope between their house and the barn during winter to help them not get lost (farm picture). Why on earth? You can see the barn 50 feet away, how could you get lost? But during winter, snow can quickly become a blizzard. White out conditions, and it is easy to get disoriented and lose your way and freeze to death. Most of us when we have bad weather, we just call in. But when you’re a farmer there’s no taking off. Animals have to be cared for - even in a blizzard.

And so even in horrible conditions, they could use a rope (illustrate) to find their way to the barn and back home.

Today, we need a rope that can lead us back home. Back to the ancient faith of Jesus and the apostles. Something that can be relied on.

The good news is that early Christians left us one. It’s called the Nicene Creed.

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I need to give just a little history so that you have some context. Some of you are like “Yes, history!” And some of you are groaning. I’ll try and be brief.

The early church grew quickly, and one of the issues they faced was how to maintain orthodoxy and accountability. How could they make sure that new believers were being taught the most important things of the faith. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the Bible is a BIG book. Actually, it’s 66 books. Together those books contain 1,189 chapters. That’s over 31,000 verses. That’s a lot for a new convert to take in, so they needed to come up with a way to distill this down to the essentials of what Christians must believe. Christians believe more than what’s in the Nicene Creed, but we can’t believe less than what’s in the Creed.

We see early formulations of the faith with people like Ignatius of Antioch. Justin Martyr. Irenaeus. Tertullian, and Hippolytus, bishop of Rome. During these first couple of hundred years what we know now as the Apostles Creed took shape. All these formulations were primarily used to prepare new believers for baptism.

Then adversity struck. A Libyan bishop named Arius began teaching that Jesus was not co-eternal with the Father. That he was a created being, not one being with the Father. And so in AD 325, under Emperor Constantine, a council was convened in the city of Nicaea to deal with this Arian controversy. Apparently, debate was very spirited, because it was reported that during arguments Nicholas, the inspiration for Santa Claus, actually punched Arius in the face!

Out of this council came a unified statement that gave the essentials of what Christians must believe. Is was actually in this council that they affirmed the 27 books and letters that make up our NT.

The Nicene Creed is meant to be an instrument of unity. It’s broad enough to hold all Christians together. In fact, it’s the only confession that is affirmed by every stream of the body of Christ. The truth is that we can find a lot to argue about in the Church. (Wheel). When we move to the edge our differences become greater and greater. We baptize infants. We don’t believe in that. We believe women can teach. This group doesn’t. What the Creed does is that it draws us back to the center. Of what we all believe together. It helps our differences not become points of complete division. The closer we move to the center, the closer we move toward each other.

More than anything, the Creed helps us to live with authenticity the story of the Bible. My hope as we go through this series is not that you can recite a creed and know some history; it’s that all of us will conform our lives to the story the Creed is telling. We’re all living into a story. Secular vs. sacred. Rags to riches story… American dream/freedom… Self-actualization story… The Creed helps us live into the sacred story that there is a Father God who loves us, who sent his Son to die for us, and who gives us his Spirit to empower us.

I want to be clear this morning: I will not be teaching the Creed during this series. I will be teaching the Scriptures that the Creed affirms. So perhaps before we get started, maybe we should say the Creed together.

Recite Creed...

Pray...

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This morning I’m going to focus on just the first three words of the Creed “We believe in...”

These three words mark each of the three stanzas of the Nicene Creed - we believe in the Father, we believe in the Son, we believe in the Holy Spirit.

If a group of church leaders convened today, I wonder if they would probably us a different phrase? Instead of “We believe in…” I wonder if they wouldn’t say “I know that…”

“I” - it’s about me the individual

“know” - it’s about certainty. People who might be wrong but never unsure.

“that” - some abstract truth or concept that’s “out there”. It’s impersonal.

The early Christians were inviting us, not to deal in abstract ideas, but in the reality of a personal God.

The first word I want to look at is “we”. Why is “We...” important?

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:8–10, NLT)

This is good news. We don’t need to earn our salvation. It’s God’s gift to us. But we shouldn’t stop there. God doesn’t just put our broken relationship with him back together, he puts our broken relationships with each other back together. Skipping down a little Paul writes,

“He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.” (Ephesians 2:17–19, NLT)

There’s something powerful about knowing that you and I can have a personal relationship with Jesus. That’s amazing. But then God says, but so does that person, and that one, and that one. And we’re like, I want a personal relationship with Jesus, but I don't’ need to have a personal relationship with Frank, do I? I’m not sure about Frank.

One of the benefits of the evangelical movement is that it taught us to make faith personal. We need to come to Jesus and know him for ourselves. You don’t get to hitch a ride on your parents or grandparents faith.

But one of the unintended consequences is that it made faith individual. Now, it’s not just that I need to know Jesus for myself, I can know Jesus by myself. We took something personal and made it private and individual and we missed the strength of the church.

“We” is about the strength of the community. Think of it like a canoe (picture of individual in canoe). We imagine faith is like a little canoe out on an ocean. We’re paddling along saying “I believe. Yes, thank you Jesus. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I believe in the Spirit.” But then something happens. You get a bad report at doctor. Marriage falls apart. Church hurts you. Pastor fails you. And you set the oar down saying, “I don’t know if I believe anymore. Is there a God that made everything? I don’t know if I believe.” And what the church has unintentionally told you is that in that moment if you can no longer paddle and put your oar of faith in the water, then you better get out of the boat. If you don’t believe, you shouldn’t be here.

So there are tons of ppl who aren’t in the boat anymore. They were rowing and something happened, and they have a crisis of faith. And I don’t know if I really believe this so I guess I’ll stop going to small group. I guess I better stop going to church if I’m not sure I believe all this. We’ve been told that faith is a one-person canoe.

But what if the “we” of faith is more like a boat full of rowers (longboat picture). And what if instead of it being a boat with 10 or 20 or 50, but it was a boat with billions in it. Right now it’s estimated that there are 2.7 billion Christians in the world. That’s a big boat. And it’s not just today at this point in history, but throughout history there are billions upon billions of people in the boat. It may have felt strange for us to say the Nicene Creed today bc that’s not a normal thing we do. But it’s not strange for most Christians. Today 1.4 billion Catholics said this creed. Half a billion Protestants said it.

This is good news because it means that when you come into crisis and you encounter a moment that you’re not sure if you believe, you set down you paddle - but you can stay in the boat. You may be struggling, but there are still billions of brothers and sisters that are still paddling.

The power of “we” means you don’t have to carry the weight of belief all on your own. If you encounter a season when faith is hard and you put the oar down, you can stay in the boat and be propelled by the faith of your community. When you’re faith is weak their faith is strong. And a day will come when you’re faith is strong and you will help carry the faith of someone who is struggling.

The good news is that if we all stay in the boat, we all arrive at our intended destination. Paul told the Corinthian church, 1 Corinthians 15:1 “Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,” In verse 3 he says he received this good news and passed it on to us. We have a received faith. We don’t just make it up as we go. It was passed on to us, and we can hold on to that rope that stretches all the way back in history to the first apostles.

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Why is “...believe...” important?

“And it is impossible to please God without faith...” (Hebrews 11:6, NLT)

Believe, or faith, is an amazing word. It’s not certainty. It’s not random either. It’s the admission that I don’t have it all figured out. That I can’t put God in a test tube and prove him like I can a science experiment.

In my mind, to want that kind of assurance eliminates the possibility for authentic relationship. If we had empirical evidence for God, like for the speed of sound, I think he would become just an abstract concept - something to be further studied and analyzed - not a Person to know.

More than that, the word faith in the Bible - pistis - calls us, not just to mental assent but to loyal allegiance. When we say we believe in Father, Son, and Spirit, we’re not just affirming that we think this God exists. We affirm that we have surrendered our ultimate allegiance to them - even in the mystery of faith.

The truth is that it is OK not to have God all figured out. I think that’s a healthy thing actually. Don’t ever settle for a God that you can put in a box - that god is not a god who can ultimately save or help you. The opposite of faith is not doubt - it’s fear. The Bible is full of stories of people who had doubts - but they believed God anyway.

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Why is “...in...” important?

“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6, NLT)

All of us are putting our faith in something. You may be putting an incredible amount of faith into things that can’t hold it. You’re putting your faith in the economy. A politician or political party. A relationship. Your own ability. Those flimsy plastic deck chairs...

But the Bible turns things around and says you don’t need great faith - Jesus said just a mustard seed worth - bc it’s not our faith that is extraordinary but our God who is extraordinary. It’s not about the size of our faith but the size of our God.

“In” is an invitation to proximity. To draw near to God. And the Bible promises that as we draw near to him he draws near to us.

“Knowing that” vs “believing in” can be illustrated in the story of a French acrobat in the 1800s named Jean Francois Gravalet, though he went by the more simple name in the US of Charles Blondin. Blondin was a tightrope walker, and one of the most famous places he walked tightropes was across Niagara Falls (Blondin on rope picture). Span of 4 decades walked a tightrope over the Falls over 300 times - crazy dude.

In 1859 as he’s preparing for another walk, everyone is there cheering him on. “Do you believe I can walk across this tightrope?” Everyone is like “Yes!” “Who wants to ride on my back?” Silence. That’s the difference between “knowing that” and “believing in”. But Jesus doesn’t want you to know “that” he’s the savior but to believe “in” him as savior.

Nobody volunteered, so he voluntold his manager, Harry Colcord, that he had to do it (Blondin and Colcord picture). Blondin tells Colcord, when we get on that rope don’t you dare try to balance on your own. If you try to balance we’re both going to fall. I’m the great Blondin. He literally told him, “when we get out on that rope there is no more Harry, there is only Blondin”.

Reminds me of what Paul said in Galatians 2:

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, NIV)

There’s an invitation today to move from knowing about Jesus to actually knowing Jesus. You may have been around this church thing. You know some stuff. But Jesus is inviting you to go beyond that. You know you can’t balance this thing called life on your own. Jesus invites you to cling to the one who loves you and gave himself for you.

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How can we respond this morning to what the Lord is doing?

For some this morning you just need to Stay in the boat. Lean into community. Maybe you are struggling with faith. That’s ok. You don’t need to have all the boxes check, just stay in the boat. I can’t speak for the other groups, but we can make room for you at my house on Tuesdays at 6 or here at the church on Wednesdays at 6. Get in community and stay in the boat.

For others, it’s time to Move beyond knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus. Surrender your life to him. If that’s you I’d like to lead you in a prayer this morning:

Heavenly Father, I know I have done wrong. I know I deserve the suffer the consequences of my actions. But I believe Jesus died to take my place, and that he suffered death for me so that I won’t have to. I am making the decision today to surrender myself to you and making Jesus my Lord. Please forgive my sin and make me your child forever. Amen.

If you prayed this for the first time this morning - welcome to God’s family. I’d like you to complete a Connect Card and drop it in the offering box at the back of the sanctuary. I will reach out to you to talk about what this means and how to take some next steps in this journey.

For some, today is just an invitation to Go deeper in faith. You’re happily a believer. But maybe your foundation feels a little shaky. The invitation during this series is to discover - or rediscover - that long rope of ancient Christianity that can faithfully lead you home. I’ve put together a 6-week Bible reading plan based on the Nicene Creed that you can begin tomorrow that will help you grow in your knowledge of that God who his confessed in the Creed. You can find a way to download this, along with the daily prayer guide I introduced last week, on our new connect page.

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Invite people to stand. Ask for worship, ministry, and Communion team to come down.

Every Sunday we close our time by receiving Communion together. This symbolic meal reminds us of Jesus’ sacrifice. It proclaims the gospel that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. It is the source of our spiritual nourishment. We believe Jesus is present with us as we receive his body and blood.

We think Jesus invites everyone to this table. If it’s your first time, or you’re not even sure yet where you stand with Jesus, we think he would welcome you here. If you would like to participate, after I pray step into the nearest aisle. Someone at the front will take a piece of bread dipped in wine and offer it to you as the body and blood of Jesus. If you prefer not to have wine, close your hands together and that will be the sign for them to give you a sealed container with grape juice and a wafer.

What is the Spirit doing this morning?...

As we go into our time of Communion let’s prepare our hearts to receive. Together let us confess our sins:

Merciful God, we confess that we have failed to love you with our whole heart and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, forgive us; change us, that we may walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Observe a moment of silence

Thank God for his forgiveness. For his patience in our struggles. To move us deeper into a life of faith with him.

Thank him that through the blood of his cross he has washed our sins away. Through his victorious resurrection he has guaranteed us eternal life. Through his ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit he has made us one with you.

We remember Him who for us and for our salvation, on the night that he was betrayed...

Come Holy Spirit and overshadow these elements. Let them be for us your body and blood so that we can participate in your redemptive work for us. May we find mercy, healing and salvation through the finished work of the cross. Amen.