Apostles' Creed Sermon - 3

Apostles’ Creed – Jesus Christ…

Colossians 1:15-20

1. Introduction – Once again at the beginning of this line, we come across the word “believe.” I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

a. In the first sermon of this series, I stressed the difference between knowing and believing.

i. Knowledge is important to have, but knowledge ultimately doesn’t change your behaviour or your attitude. Belief on the other hand, involves both the head and the heart. With belief should come the courage and conviction to live differently.

1. I stressed it’s important to note that the creed is a statement of beliefs, it is not simply a statement of things we know.

b. This is the heart of the Creed, this is the largest section, and I believe this is done on purpose. The person and the work of Jesus Christ is the heart of the Christian faith.

i. What we believe about Jesus sets Christianity apart from all other world religions.

c. Hindus, Muslims, and Jews all believe in God. Many world religions teach that Jesus was a good person, a religious reformer, and some atheists even think that Jesus was a good moral teacher.

i. Christians, while believing all of those things about Jesus, also believe so much more.

1. We believe that he is the Christ, God’s only Son, and he is our Lord.

d. And maybe for some of you here this morning, you know a lot about Jesus. You know facts about him – facts that you can know about your favourite hockey player – trading card facts.

i. You know that he healed the sick, you know that he raised the dead, that he fed thousands of people.

1. Maybe you know these things about him, but you don’t believe he is the Christ, God’s only Son our Lord.

a. Or maybe you believe these things, but you struggle with how these titles have any impact on your life today.

i. How does Jesus being God’s only Son impact your present reality? We’re going to seek answers to these questions today.

e. We’re going to bulk up, round out this area of your theology. Maybe some areas of your idea and understanding of Jesus is a bit underdeveloped, so hopefully, starting this morning and continuing for the next few weeks, we are going to add some symmetry to your belief and understanding of Jesus.

i. Maybe you understand Jesus as your Saviour, but you have a hard time seeing as Lord in your life.

1. Maybe you think Jesus was a good person, but you don’t understand how he can also be the Son of God.

f. We are going to do some heavy theological lifting today, but it’s important lifting, because our understanding and beliefs about Jesus is at the heart of the life we claim to have as Christians.

i. We’re going to look at what it means to confess and profess Jesus to be the Christ, the only Son of God, and our Lord.

1. Again, this could probably be split into 3 or 4 sermons, but looking at these three titles together will help us with our goal of having a well-rounded theological understanding.

2. Christ – The first title that the creed ascribes to Jesus is the title ‘Christ.’

a. Now, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. It is an adjective – it describes his office.

b. It’s like my name. Pastor or Reverend isn’t part of my name, it is my title. It describes a specific role and office that I have been called to.

i. Michael is my name, Pastor is my title. The same is true with doctors or presidents…and Jesus.

1. Mary and Joseph named him Jesus, and the word “Christ” describes the office he was called to fulfill.

c. Probably the most well know use of this title is recorded for us in Matthew 16.

i. Jesus is talking with his disciples and he ask them, “Who do people say I am” “What’s the word on the street about me?”

1. They answer, some say you’re a reincarnated prophet, John the Baptist back from the dead, or a good moral teacher… do those descriptions sound familiar???

d. Then Jesus makes the question personal, “but what about you? Who do you say I am?”

i. And Peter pipes up, “You are the Christ…the Son of the living God.” There’s two of our titles right there.

1. And we have to understand the full scope of this beautiful confession.

e. This question and confession scene takes place outside of a city called Caesarea Philippi.

i. It was named Caesarea by Octavian, better known as Caesar Augustus, and later Herod the Great added the name Philippi to it to honour his brother Philip.

1. Caesarea Philippi was the crown jewel of the Roman Empire outside of Rome. There was a temple built in the city to honour Caesar and it was a hub of emperor worship in Jesus’ day and beyond.

a. And it was here, outside of mini Rome that Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ.

f. Now, I want to focus on this word Christ for a bit. Our word “Christ” comes from the Greek word “Christos” which means ‘anointed one.”

i. When the OT was translated out of Hebrew into Greek, the word Christos was used to translated the Hebrew word “Messiah” which also meant anointed one.

1. When we talk about Jesus we use the words interchangeably. We talk about Jesus being the Christ or the Messiah, both words meaning the same thing.

a. This is what Peter is confessing, but the meaning goes even deeper than that.

g. Again, when the OT was translated from Hebrew into Greek, this Greek word Christos was applied to kings. Kings were God’s anointed for leading the people.

i. We just saw on Friday, the pomp and circumstance of a presidential inauguration culminates with the newly elected president taking the oath of office.

1. In ancient Israel, when a new king was crowned, the climax of the ceremony was when the priest would anoint the king’s head with oil.

a. This act signified that this king was set apart by God to rule and reign over his people.

h. This is what Peter is confessing about Jesus. Yes, you’re the Messiah, you are the Christ, but forget about Caesar, forget about Caesarea Philippi, forget about the Roman Empire – Peter confesses Jesus to be king over all of it!

i. Peter confesses Jesus to be anointed by God to rule and reign over, not just his people, but Jesus is to rule and reign over the whole universe.

i. Earlier we stood and said the Apostles’ Creed together, and we recited this line – “I believe in Jesus Christ…”

i. And these aren’t just empty and meaningless words. To say them is to claim Jesus as your king. To say them is to give Jesus your highest allegiance. It is to reject the pretenders of our world and align yourself fully with Jesus.

1. It is to recognize that your highest allegiance doesn’t belong to this world, to your work, to your family or your nation.

a. To say, “I believe in Jesus Christ…” means that your highest allegiance belongs to Jesus – he is your Christ, he is your king.

3. Son of God – And this passage in Matthew 16 gives us the second title of Jesus – Son of the living God.

a. All throughout the Gospels, and really the entire NT, the title Son of God is given to Jesus.

b. At Jesus’ baptism, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River my John, and as he came up out of the water, the sky opened, the Holy Spirit descended and the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in him I am well pleased.”

i. Later, at an event we call the transfiguration, again the voice of God is heard saying, “This is my Son, listen to him.”

1. At the cross, after Jesus had died, the centurion… now understand something, this was the man in charge that day.

a. Centurion means that he was the leader of hundreds, he was in charge, he was the one giving orders, making sure the nails were driven in sufficiently, that the cross was put up properly, that the victims were really dead.

i. And after Jesus died, having seen the way he died – the centurion confessed, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

c. But perhaps the best known use of this title comes in the most used, most memorized verse in the Bible. John 3:16.

i. And it is in this verse, even with its clarity and simplicity that we start to do some heavy theological lifting about how Jesus is.

1. Because John uses a very specific word, one that the creed repeats – only.

a. KJV says, “only begotten” while other English translations say, ‘one and only.’

d. What does this mean? Doesn’t this contradict what we looked at last week – that as Christians we are God’s sons and daughters?

i. Well, this isn’t a contradiction because this verse and others like it speak to the uniqueness of Jesus’ relationship with the Father.

e. As Christians, we don’t believe that Jesus was a created being; some super-spiritual being or super-angel taking on the form of a human.

i. We don’t believe that a divine nature miraculously appeared in a name named Jesus of Nazareth.

1. Like John says in John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God. And like John says later in that chapter, we believe that his Word, describing Jesus, who was eternally present with the Father, also took on flesh and dwelt among us. We’re going to talk more about this next week.

a. And this is where we have to do some heavy theological lifting, because in Jesus Christ, dwelt simultaneously 2 natures, a human nature and a divine nature.

i. Jesus was at the same time, fully God and fully man. In fancy theological language, it’s called this the hypostatic union.

f. Some will try to teach that the early Christians and creed invented the fact that Jesus was divine. Some teach that it wasn’t until 3 or 4 centuries after Jesus lived and died that Christians started thinking of him as divine.

i. But if was very early on, that followers of Jesus saw him doing things that only God could do. Raising the dead, forgiving sins – and it was like 20 years after Jesus walked the earth that Paul wrote two beautiful hymns about the deity of Jesus.

1. We read on early – Colossians 1 – the image of the invisible God.

a. In Philippians Jesus is said to be equal with God.

i. And later in Colossians Paul wrote the in Jesus the fullness of God dwelt in bodily form.

1. What this is describing for us is this crazy thing we just celebrated called Christmas – we call it the Incarnation.

g. The second person of our Triune God, God’s only and eternal Son took on the flesh and bones of a real human being – entered this world like every other human being enters the world, and for a time, God lived among his people.

i. It’s crazy to think that for a time, God chose to reveal himself to humanity in this – in the person of his Son.

1. Now, Son, doesn’t mean ‘descendant of’ – it doesn’t mean that Jesus is less than the Father or that Jesus was created by the Father.

a. This is an eternal and mutually loving relationship where the 1st person is always Father to the second and the second is always Son to the first.

i. This relationship is part of the unique glory of the triune God.

h. It’s a staggering and mind blowing thought, and if you’re having a hard time wrapping your mind around, you’re in good company, because the church struggled with this very concept, until a church meeting held in the city of Nicaea in 325, where the council of Nicaea wrote the Nicene creed and penned these words…

4. Lord – And finally, we come to the most popular title given to Jesus – Lord.

a. Over 500 times in the NT is Jesus given this title. In fact, this was the earliest and simplest Christian Creed – Jesus is Lord.

b. Now again, there’s something we need to know that this word. The Greek word is Kurios, and it’s a term that signified the highest authority a person can have in a particular span of control.

i. So, in a patriarchal society, the man of the house was called ‘lord of the household.’ The leader of the city was the lord of the city, the king – lord of the kingdom.

1. And Caesar was said to be the lord of the lords – he had the highest authority in all of the empire.

c. But the Bible says something about the Lordship of Jesus – it is very clear that Jesus isn’t a lord, but the is the Lord. The definite article, the word ‘the’ really matters in this case.

i. We just came out of Christmas, what did the angel say to the shepherds??? For unto you…who is Christ a lord? No, Christ the Lord.

1. Not one among many, but he is Lord over all other would be lords.

5. Application – And this has a huge impact on our lives today. Because maybe for some of you, you’re really attached to the idea of Jesus as your Saviour. You love Calvary, and you should, that is the most significant event in all of history.

i. You love to think about Jesus as your Saviour, but he isn’t Lord of your life.

1. To stand and profess, “I Believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord,” is to say that Jesus has the ultimate authority in your life.

b. To confess this truth makes a huge different in your life. You can’t say “Jesus is Lord” and then go on trying to control your life.

i. You can’t say “Jesus is Lord” and then NOT give him the worship and praise he is due.

1. If that is how your life is structured then what you are confessing is that Jesus is one lord among many…and that just won’t do.

c. I’m gonna be straight with you because I love you all…hear me on this – you make a lousy lord. I make a lousy lord.

i. Anytime I try to take control of my life, or you try to take control of your life – every time we do that, chaos usually ensues, doesn’t it? Things unravel rather quickly.

1. As Christians, we can’t say, “Jesus is Lord” without reshuffling our priorities.

a. If we don’t make time for prayer and Bible study… if we see coming to church as optional…that is saying Jesus is one lord among many. He doesn’t have the priority in your life.

i. We are treating Jesus as a nice add-on to our lives. He’s kinda like our fire insurance. You tracking with me? He’s there so we don’t burn in hell for all eternity, but his lordship isn’t really making a difference in our lives.

1. Jesus’ isn’t to be an add on to your life, he is to be the centre of it.

d. And the Bible tells us that Jesus is Lord of heaven, earth, visible things, invisible things – and if he’s Lord of all of those things, think how good he’ll be as Lord of our measly little lives?

i. To say Jesus is Lord is to think his thoughts, to value what he values, and to pursue his pursuits.

1. When we say, “Jesus is Lord,” we consciously reject pretenders and we worship Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.

a. O, may we develop a well-rounded idea of Jesus, both as our Saviour and as our Lord.

i. May we see Jesus, not as a good add on to our lives, not as our fire insurance, but may we see him as the Lord of our lives – the one whom our whole existence is structured around.

6. Conclusion – We have been confronted by Jesus this morning, but the truth about who he is.

a. And Jesus’ question still hold – who do you say he is? Who is he to you? One lord among many or the Lord of it?

b. C.S. Lewis wrote that when being confronted with the evidence about Jesus, we can conclude that Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or he is Lord of all.

i. Either Jesus of Nazareth lived his life with an incredible amount of deception and an incredible amount of self-discipline.

1. Or he needed to be straight jacketed and thrown in a padded room because he was out of his mind crazy.

a. Or – and this is the conclusion that Lewis came to, the conclusion the early church came, the conclusion that early Christians came to and gave their lives for…

i. Jesus is who he said he is.

c. Who do you say that Jesus is? Do you mean it and does your life reflect that you believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only, our Lord?

i. I pray that your love for and your understanding of Jesus deepens as we spend the next few weeks studying his significance.