Introduction

Recently, our leadership team adopted a statement of Christian beliefs that was written by Brian McLaren for the Emergent Convention held at Nashville, Tennessee, USA, in May 2004. This statement has not been made public before today — not even our congregation knows about it. Thus, I want to use this morning's message, and the next three, to introduce the statement, to explain its purpose, and to explain its meaning, in four parts.

The Jesus Creed

We have confidence in Jesus,

Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.

And even raised the dead.

He cast out evil powers and

Confronted corrupt leaders.

He cleansed the temple.

He favoured the poor.

He turned water into wine,

Walked on water, calmed storms.

He died for the sins of the world,

Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,

Sent the Holy Spirit.

We have confidence in Jesus,

Who taught in word and example,

Sign and wonder.

He preached parables of the kingdom of God

On hillsides, from boats, in the temple, in homes,

At banquets and parties, along the road, on beaches, in towns,

By day and by night.

He taught the way of love for God and neighbour,

For stranger and enemy, for outcast and alien.

We have confidence in Jesus,

Who called disciples, led them,

Gave them new names and new purpose

And sent them out to preach good news.

He washed their feet as a servant.

He walked with them, ate with them,

Called them friends,

Rebuked them, encouraged them,

Promised to leave and then return,

And promised to be with them always.

He taught them to pray.

He rose early to pray, stole away to desolate places,

Fasted and faced agonizing temptations,

Wept in a garden,

And prayed, "Not my will but your will be done".

He rejoiced, he sang, he feasted, he wept.

We have confidence in Jesus,

So we follow him, learn his ways,

Seek to obey his teaching and live by his example.

We walk with him, walk in him, abide in him,

As a branch in a vine.

We have not seen him, but we love him.

His words are to us words of life eternal,

And to know him is to know the true and living God.

We do not see him now, but we have confidence in Jesus.

Amen.

Purpose of the Creed

The purpose of this statement is not so much to what we as a congregation believe specifically, but to indicate the types of beliefs we hold generally. We will publish this on our website and in appropriate documents as a way of inviting others to journey with us in exploring what Jesus means to us.

For any journey to begin, it is always appropriate to have a clearly marked starting-point. This creed is our theological starting-point, as opposed to other possible starting-points.

You might be wondering to yourself, "If there are other possible starting-points, then why choose this one?" That's a good question, especially consider that we, as a church in the international family of Churches Of Christ, do not actually adhere to any creed at all.

Historically, Churches Of Christ have eschewed the use of creeds believing that creeds tend to separate Christians from being in unity and fellowship — see Lorraine and Lyndsay Jacobs, "Characteristics Of Our Churches", World Convention of Churches of Christ (http://worldconvention.org/characteristicsofourchurches.htm, accessed 29-03-2008). We are using this creed then, not as a statement to which all of our members must agree and adhere, but as a means of expressing the faith and beliefs that tend to be taught and promoted by our leaders. To belong to this community one need only confirm that they believe that Jesus is the Christ and accept him as your Lord and Saviour (cf. Matthew 16 15-17).

The Meaning of the Creed

I intend to spread out my reflections on the meaning of this creed across four Sunday, since the creed itself is split into four sections by the phrase "We have confidence in Jesus".

Paragraph 1

The first section of the creed contains three paragraphs, the first of which states:

We have confidence in Jesus,

Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.

And even raised the dead.

All three of this section's paragraphs speak of the miracles performed by Jesus. Those miracles act, to some degree, as elements of a Christian apologetic. This first paragraph speaks of the miracles that Jesus performed directly on individual persons. 

This paragraph brings to mind a certain story in the Bible found in The Gospel of John (John 9:1-16; 25-27; 35-38). The story goes like this ...

read aloud John 9:1-16; 25-27; 35-38

The principal character in this story is a man born blind from birth. Jesus happens upon this man and gives him sight. Notice that he does not actually "heal" this man — the language of the passage uses the phrase "opened his eyes". This is a true miracle insofar as Jesus creates sight in this man who had no faculty for it at all.

Notice also that the blind man did not actually ask to have his eyes opened. Having a sickness almost inherently implies that one may be healed of the sickness eventually; but this man had no reason whatsoever to think that he would ever be able to see. He was thus probably just as surprised as everyone else that Jesus was able to open his eyes.

It seems that those who knew him even had trouble recognising him because they did not ever expect to see him with eyes open, doing anything other than begging.

The religious leaders of his day brought him before their council and challenged him as to how he now had eyes that were open. This was quite a miracle, and even the religious leaders were intrigued to hear his story. They could not accept his story because, even though they should have been accustomed to the miracles of God, the fact that Jesus performed this miracle on the day dedicated as a day of rest — known then as "the sabbath", and observed in modern times by Christians on Sunday — meant that Jesus had committed a minor crime and certainly could not have the power of God in him.

How odd that Jesus' ability to perform miracles should have been confirmation that he was a man of God, but because he did not follow the traditional rules of his religion, Jesus was maligned by these leaders. They debated between themselves, but could not actually see the point made by Jesus: "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9 4-5).

In a funny little twist, the man interprets the interest of the religious leaders in Jesus as an indication that they too want to become followers of Jesus. For this man born blind, his gratitude at being given sight so overwhelmed him with joy that knew inherently that Jesus was special, and thus wanted to discover from him what Jesus knew of God. That the religious leaders would stoop to ask Jesus about God, when Jesus would not obey their traditions, was simply laughable to them. Who do you think was smarter: The religious leaders with their life-stifling traditions or the man who received his sight, being full of gratitude and a newly-discovered faith?

At the end of this story, the man born blind is naïve in his faith, but all he knows that Jesus is special and displays the power of God — if Jesus says that he has been sent by God, then the man is happy to have confidence in him. What a contrast to the closed minds of the religious leaders who should have known better!

Here is an important distinction that makes this creed so unique: The man who received his sight has not been taught any doctrines by Jesus that he should believe them; he simply has confidence that Jesus would tell the truth about himself, since he displayed such supernatural power. This creed of Brian McLaren's also does not tell us what to believe, but simply indicates those things in which we can have confidence regarding Jesus. The miracles of Jesus are such confidence-builders.

If the Bible indicates that Jesus healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed, and even raised the dead, then he must have been pretty special. We can have confidence then in what Jesus teaches us about himself and about God because a person with such power to affect individuals is unknown even in our technologically advanced age. Surprisingly, Jesus took it up a notch.

Paragraph 2

The second paragraph of this creed speaks of the miracles that Jesus performed on the systems of his day: Political, religious, social, and natural.

He cast out evil powers and

Confronted corrupt leaders.

He cleansed the temple.

He favoured the poor.

He turned water into wine,

Walked on water, calmed storms.

The miracles of Jesus did not only address the needs of individuals, but also the sicknesses and evil inherent in the systems of society. Jesus addressed injustice and those who perpetrate it. He was not intimidated by a person's position or credentials. He did not bow to the traditions of his religion — even though he followed his religion faithfully — when those traditions did not serve God nor draw the people close to God.

He cared for the sick and exhibited a preference for the poor. He was not afraid to spend time with the outcasts of society or to be identified with them. Jesus was known to enjoy a good party — on at least one occasion, the drinks were on him!

Jesus' power was so great that, supernaturally, he could control the forces of nature. Interestingly, he even went so far as to declare that those who had confidence in him could do the same and more! (see Matthew 14:29; 21:21; John 14:12)

Paragraph 3

The third paragraph, of this first section of the creed, speaks of the miracles that Jesus perfomed on himself and why.  The "why" of those miracles are miracles in themselves.

He died for the sins of the world,

Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,

Sent the Holy Spirit.

It's pretty exciting that Jesus could perform such miracles on other people. It is even more interesting that he would use his supernatural power not for his own advancement, but instead confronted the systems of his day that he knew would eventually kill him. It is just downright flabbergasting that he could then use his power on himself even after he was dead.

Now let that point sink in for a moment ... It's one thing to make magic happen when you're alive, but doing it after you're dead is just impossible — unless, of course, you are God!

These miracles that Jesus performed reveal to us aspects of Jesus' nature: That he was merciful; that he was fun to be around; that he knew stuff, important stuff; that he was compassionate; and, most importantly, that he was God because only God could bring a man back to life, let alone when that man is yourself.

These miracles of Jesus also demonstrate conclusively that there is a supernatural reality all around us, of which we are very rarely aware. Jesus' miracles are not simply the magic of a good teacher! Unless we "pay attention" in faith and through spiritual discipline, we may never ever really come to understand the truth about ourselves and the world we live in: We are spiritual beings and there exists a God in this universe who created us and loves us so much that he sent his Son to die that we might live (John 3:16).

This final paragraph indicates that God is triune — that is that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; three persons sharing the same substance of their being. This may be a hard doctrine to believe, but, if Jesus is who he said he is and did what the Bible says he did, then we have every reason to have confidence in him.

Conclusion

I hope that you have found our welcome, our worship, and my message this morning, to be comfortable. I want to invite you to join us for, at least, the next three Sundays as we explore some reasons why we, here known as Hurstville Church of Christ, have confidence in Jesus.

If you have been at all intrigued by what I have spoken about this morning, then that is an indication that the Holy Spirit is trying to break into your consciousness (cf. John 14:26; 15:26: 16:7-11). Let me encourage you to not be afraid of this; welcome it and prayerfully begin your adventure of faith with us!