This I Believe

Creeds

Today we are beginning a new series on something that is going to be relatively new and uncomfortable for many of us. We are discussing a creed. So before we dive into it let’s talk about creeds a little bit. We have all used creeds in our life before, we just may not have been aware of them.

A creed is simply a formal statement of faith.

Even in the Christian church we have creeds. How many of us have heard it said No Creed but Christ? But that in and of itself is a creed. We are stating that we believe in Christ alone. We are formally making a belief statement. There is also the Christian creed of Sola Scriptura, sola fide, solo gracia. That is only scripture, only faith, only Christ. Here at the church we have even had a creed in the past, we have just not referred to it by that name. There is this sheet of paper that has been widely available that explains in brief what the church believes. This has been in the back of the church until now. Now it is in my hand. But what is this if not a creed? It is a formal state of beliefs by the church. There are other public creeds. Almost every corporation has a creed, it is simply called a belief statement or a mission statement. It is something that shows the values of each corporation at a glance. So we all know that we have interacted with creeds. If you are still unconvinced let me talk about a few creeds that are in the bible.

English Standard Version Chapter 6

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), Dt 6:4–9.

“4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

This is something that thew Jewish people would learn from an incredibly young age. They would memorize this chunk of text called the Shema and they would recite it often. This was their creed. What they believed as a people. But then again this was the Old Testament so maybe you still need a little more convincing? Turn you bibles to

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

This is something that thew Jewish people would learn from an incredibly young age. They would memorize this chunk of text called the Shema and they would recite it often. This was their creed. What they believed as a people. But then again this was the Old Testament so maybe you still need a little more convincing? Turn you bibles to

English Standard Version Chapter 2

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This is a portion of Philippians in which Paul is stating that what the Philippians should believe. He is laying out the simple Christian belief system of Jesus Christ.

He walks through the gospel in brief and gives the Philippians something short that they could remember easily as they articulated what they believed. I believe that Creeds do three very important things for us.

Explain

These creeds explain what we believe. These are not documents that come up with new doctrine. Instead these are carefully crafted paragraphs that are put together by people who make it their life’s purpose to explain the gospel. This is beneficial for those who are coming into the faith and for those who have been in the faith. There are times in which it is difficult for us understand what we believe. We may lose sight of what the most important things we believe are. A Creed explains the most true things of Christianity.

Remind

Remind

Creeds are ment to be memorized. they are meant to be repeated so that they could be a constant reminder of what we believe. When you wake up, recite the creed, when you go to bed recite the creed. The creed that we are going to be introduced to in a moment is one that was repeated in many different services. The most important one was baptism. It was used in its earliest forms as a confession for baptism. As a reminder to the commitment that a person was amking by allowing themselves to be immersed in the water and committing themselves to Jesus. So then it is a constant reminder from the beginning of faith.

Simplify

Creeds simplify what we believe. This allows us to tell other what we believe in a well articulated fashion. If we know our creeds then when someone comes to ask you what you believe you can simply recite it. When they start asking question, this will give you the opportunity begin to explain what the creed actually means. It is in the explanation that you can really dive into the personal aspects of Christianity, but I know that when someone asks me what I believe that can be such a broad question. Such a difficult thing to answer. I believe a lot, but a creed helps me identify the most simple aspects of that believe and articulate them to others.

So, understanding all of those things I want to introduce this next series that we will be going through. It is something that will probably take a while, but something that I have wanted to do for a long time. We are going to be dissecting the Apostles’ Creed. Now, I have printed the Apostles’ creed and inserted it into each of your bulletins. If you didn’t grab a bulletin it will be on the screen.

Historic Creeds and Confessions Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth

And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord

Who 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

He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead

I believe in the Holy Ghost

I believe a holy catholic church; the communion of saints

The forgiveness of sins

The resurrection of the body

And the life everlasting. Amen.

We are going to spend the next weeks breaking down this creed in fantastic detail and understanding where each aspect of it comes from. For some this may be a simple reminder of the things that we haave believed for a long time. For others our eyes may be opened to new aspects of the faith that we haven’t considered for a long time if ever. I am going to ask you to do a few things before we get started in this. First, would you come to this with an open mind? We all are going to have different views on these creeds. Many of us are going to view this as something inherently Catholic, but this is not necessarily true. This predates the catholic church believe it or not. The word catholic in this text means united. It is a lowercase c. It is not referring to the Catholic church as an organization, but instead all churches following Jesus Christ united together under his grace. So, would you come to this with an open mind? Secondly, would you work to memorize this as well? It is very brief. 113 words. and believe me, by the time we are done tearing it apart you will have had ample time to memorize. So, without further ado let’s dive into the beginning.

I believe

Who is the I that is speaking in this text? Simply put, it is all those who adhere to the Christian faith. More than that it is all those that have adhered to Christian faith in the past. This I is hardly singular. When we say this creed, when we repeat what we believe we are saying it alongside decades of other Christians who have believed these things as well. There is a strength in numbers that is undeniable. When you buy any sort of rope or cord, the more strands the better, when you are building a wall if you don’t put in enough studs it will be weak and it will collapse, It is incredible how much easier a task may become when you have a second set of hands. When I worked in a kitchen we would be tasked with cleaning after a meal. There were times in which I had to do this by myself depending on the shift and who was scheduled to be there. When I did it alone it could take up to an hour. We had to clean dishes, work spaces, dining areas, serving areas, and set it all up for the next meal. This means that I was moving back and forth between a lot of tasks and it took a great deal of time to get it all done. When there was a second person, what do you think happened? Did it cut the time in half? No, It cut it down by more than that. We not only helped each other get things done, but we motivated each other, encouraged each other. There is power in numbers. We are saying this with numbers on our side.

But who else is this I? Let’s look at the origins of this creed. The legend behind it is that the apostles each wrote a line of this creed days after the ascension. While it is completely impossible to prove that this is either true or false, the sentiment behind it is that the apostles’ teaching is represented in the creed. Every portion of this is meant to reflect biblical and apostolic accuracy. What we do have concrete information of is that it was really finalized around 200 A.D. Which means that some form of this creed had been around for longer than that. In the beginning, as I said before it was used primarily during baptisms. When we baptize someone we take their confession of faith. Well this was the confession of faith for those people. Which brings us to our second word for today.

I Believe

Faith is of the utmost importance. Belief is of the utmost importance. Not just for Christians, but for every person who is living. There are certain things that we have to believe so that we can function in our day to day life. When I wake up, I believe that my morning coffee is going to give me energy. When I go out, I believe that other drivers will be semi-responsible so that I don’t get in a wreck. When you eat food at a restaurant, or in your own home, you have to believe that it was prepared in such a way that won’t make you ill. We all believe in different things.

But belief is something entirely different when we come to the Christian faith. It is what gives us our purpose, it is the center of everything that we hold dear. If we don’t have faith, then we can’t know God. That is all there is to it. Faith has to come first. Faith has always come first for the people of god when they have followed him well. Think of Abraham, leaving his homeland on faith before he really knew that God was trustworthy. Think about any Christian who is baptized into this faith. You have an inkling about who God is, enough that you trust him, but it may not be for years until God shows us in practical ways that he is truly enough.So then we begin the Christian life with a leap of faith. One author calls faith a “clinging and cleaving to Christ” Faith is not very far from desperation in the beginning. And this isn’t a bad thing. When we begin with faith, God will show himself to us. He will prove himself to us over and over again. We just have to believe enough to Give him that opportunity. So Church today would you say with me? I believe. I believe. This is the most important portion of this creed, because without it nothing else matters. If we don’t believe the words that come next, then there is no point in uttering them. Understand this, doubt is not always the enemy. there are going to be seasons of you rlife when you doubt the things of God, that is okay. These can be opportunities to learn more about who God is and grow your faith. If you never have doubt in your life, then you probably aren’t being bold enough for the Kingdom.

I am excited to journey through this creed together. I am excited to see the things that God is going to reveal to us through this exercise. What I want you to understand today more than anything though is that faith is about so much more than our personal relationship with the Father. It is about thousands of years of people who have followed God. Billions of people who have proclaimed his name, in different tongues, in different times. But all with one voice proclaiming. I believe.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), .

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), Dt 6:4–9.