Apostles' Creed Sermon - 2

Apostles’ Creed – God the Father Almighty

Acts 17:22-29

1. Introduction – So last week, we were introduced or re-introduced to the Apostles’ Creed. This is an amazing document that concisely summarizes the foundational truths of the Christian.

a. These truths are historic, but timeless. These truths actually lay out the life we claim to have as Christians.

i. What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it look like to be a follower of Jesus?

1. It looks like believing in God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

b. This creed is incredible; it is simple, beautiful, and profound – all at the same time.

i. This creed, when used in parallel with the study of Scripture, can deepen our understanding of who God is and cause to be further rooted and grounded in the truths of God.

c. This creed causes us to focus on God, not ourselves. It speaks of the Father, Son and the Spirit. It takes our focus, which is often misaligned or focused on the wrong things, and causes us to simply bask in who God is.

d. This creed gives us a well-rounded faith. It doesn’t hone in on one subject too closely – it paints with broad sweeping strokes, and as a result it adds symmetry to our faith that is sometimes lacking.

i. Last week, I used the example of a person at the gym that only works out one muscle group.

1. I had a friend in high school who loved bench press, bicep curls, triceps pulldowns; he loved getting on the peck deck, but he never did a squat in his life. He never went anywhere near the leg press machine or did any dead lifts.

a. As a result, his body was asymmetrical. He had this toned, well defined upper body, but he had itty bitty chicken legs.

ii. Well the same can be true in our theological understanding. There can be certain areas of our faith where we love to study. We are naturally drawn to certain aspects of God’s character or certain aspects of the Christian life. We love to work those parts out.

1. But what usually ends up happening is those parts of the Christian are developed at the expense of other vitally important parts. As a result, our faith becomes asymmetrical.

a. We have a toned, well defined upper body, but we got chicken legs.

i. We end up being asymmetrical, like a pear. So my goal is to bulk up and strengthen those underdeveloped areas so we all have a well-rounded faith – kinda like an apple.

1. My goal is to root and ground us firmly in the belief of God the Father Almighty, Jesus Christ his only Son, and in the Holy Spirit.

2. I Believe in God – And it is absolutely appropriate that the first statement of the creed says, “I believe in God the Father Almighty…”

a. Where else can you start? What you think about and what you believe about God shapes the rest of your worldview.

i. Now really, what we’re looking at this morning could really be stretched out into 3 or 4 sermons, but we are going to look briefly this morning at believing in God, the Father, Almighty.

b. So what does it mean to believe in God? What does it look like? To believe in God, to profess, “I believe in God…” does not simply mean, “I think a supreme being exists.” I believe that something or someone is out there – a higher power. Something like the force in Star Wars.

i. To believe in something, to believe in God means that you commit yourself to his existence. To believe in God means your whole life is structured around the fact that God exists and he is to be praised and worship. Like Paul said to the philosophers in Athens – in God we live and move and have our being.

c. Martin Luther suggests that whatever your heart clings to, whatever ultimately matters you, whatever truly motivates you – that is your god.

i. There’s this false assumption in Christianity that the opposite of believing in God is not believing in him – atheism. But the Bible actually teaches otherwise.

1. The opposite of belief in God is not atheism, but idolatry – the worship of other gods.

a. We are all natural born worshippers; everyone on earth worships something – the question is, “Where does your heart lie?” Are you attaching yourself to something big enough to be God? Or are you worshipping an idol?

d. To believe is to make a choice, a real-life choice about your priorities, how you use your time, about how you expend our energy, spend your money and where your passions lie.

i. To say, “I believe in God…” means that we believe in him as he is revealed in the pages of Scripture. We believe that God is worthy of our worship and praise; that he will never leave us, forsake or disappoint us. To believe in God means that our whole existence is structured around bringing honour and glory to his name.

1. The two points I want to hammer home this morning is that throughout the pages of Scripture God is revealed to be infinitely powerful and intimately personal. Or as the creed puts it – the Father, Almighty – Creator of heaven and earth.

e. We are actually going to look at the first sentence of the creed backwards. We are going to see that God is infinitely powerful – he is almighty God.

i. But he is also intimately personal – so close to his people that we can curl up on his lap and call him “dad.”

f. One more thing about belief in God. It requires a great deal of humility.

i. We have to realize that there are facets of God’s nature and his will that we simply can’t understand.

1. Just because I have Reverend in front of my name; just because I have a Master of Divinity degree doesn’t mean I have all the answer about God, about what it means to be a Christian or how to live the Christian life. I don’t have all the answers, and neither do you.

g. So, when we are discussing the ways of God, when we are discussing the Christian life – or really, any topic for that matter – when we are talking with each other in this church, people from other churches or those who don’t yet believe in God, we need humility.

i. We have to realize that we don’t and can’t know everything. Look at these verses. Psalm 145:3 and Isaiah 55:8. These verses should cause us to check our pride and our arrogance at the door, and realize humility is what’s required.

3. Almighty – And it’s important to know that we’re not talking about and we don’t believe in a weak, powerless and impotent God. The Creed says it plainly and powerfully – I believe in God…almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

a. I said at the beginning that this creed helps us develop a well-rounded faith. And so, for some of you, you are attached to God as your friend, as your buddy. You’ve got your “Jesus is my homeboy” bumper sticker. And there’s nothing wrong with that. God is a personal God.

i. This area of your theology is ripped. But if this area of your theology is well-defined, it has probably come at the expense of other facets of God’s character.

1. In particular, that fact that he is almighty.

b. But we are reminded right at the beginning of the creed, and throughout the whole of the Bible, that God is powerful – he is almighty.

i. And the creed focuses on one aspect of God’s almightiness – the fact that he is the creator of heaven and earth. And right of the beginning, the Bible speaks about the creating powers of God.

c. Genesis 1&2 tell us that in the beginning God made everything. Light, dark, the sky, waters, stars, sun, moon, birds, animals, fish, plants, trees, humans…God made it all.

i. And the crazy thing…he made it all by speaking. God is so powerful, that making everything wasn’t even a struggle for him.

1. He rested on the 7th day, not because he was tired, but to enjoy his newly formed creation.

a. The rest of the Bible speaks about the creating powers of God. Psalm 33:6 – he spoke and everything was created.

i. Hebrews 11:3 – entire universe was formed at God’s command.

ii. God made everything by speaking – imagine what he could do with a little bit of effort?

d. And so if this area of your understanding of who God is is underdeveloped, you need to spend time reading the last 4 chapters of Job. Job 38 to the end.

i. You need to spend time reading some of the Psalms. Psalms 8, 19, 139 and others like those that talk about how great God’s creating powers are.

1. This is vitally important for you to understand. As Jeremiah 32:17 says, nothing is too difficult for God. He is Almighty.

4. Father – And for others of you here this morning, you are so focused on God’s Almightiness, so focused his absolute power, maybe you have forgotten that God is also an intimately personal father.

a. The creed reminds us that yes, God is almighty, creator of everything, he is infinitely powerful.

i. But we are also reminded that God is intimately personal. And when we put those 2 aspects together we begin to develop and more apple-shaped idea of who God is. Well-rounded.

b. But why do we call God Father? A couple reasons. First, Jesus himself does.

i. From the beginning of his earthly life, at 12 years old in the temple, he was going about doing his Father’s, his heavenly Father’s, business.

1. To the end of his life in the Garden of Gethsemane – where he asks the Father to remove the cup of suffering from him… Jesus never lost sight of the fact he was in an eternal and mutually loving relationship with God the Father.

a. We’re going to speak more about his relationship in the coming weeks.

c. Not only did Jesus himself know God as his Father, but he invited us to do so as well. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, how does that prayer start??? “Our Father…”

i. Think about how remarkable these words are? Do you understand what’s happening here? Jesus is inviting us to participate in the same type of relationship that he has with God the Father Almighty.

1. Jesus is saying that we can have this intensely personal relationship with God – one that is so close it’s like we can curl up on God’s lap and call him “dad.”

a. These are not lifeless words that we recite by memory. Like some sort of incantation. No, these are powerful words that speak to the kind and the quality of relationship we can have with God. Our Father…

5. Through Adoption – But how? How does God become our Father? Look at Galatians 4:4-7.

a. God becomes our Father through the beautiful process of adoption. When we come to God, not on our own merit, standing on our own goodness or the good things we’ve done or do…

i. When we come to God, knowing that there is absolutely nothing we can do ourselves to forgive our sins…

1. When we come to God through the shed blood of Jesus, God forgives our sins, and as an added bonus, God adopts us into his family.

a. God wasn’t satisfied simply to save his people, he adopts them as well. We become God’s children; his very own sons and daughters.

b. Adoption has changed my life. I became a father through this process. A child, who is not biologically related to me has been incorporated into my family.

i. She is my daughter, I am her daddy, she has my last name, he is a member of my family – with all the wonderful benefits that come with being a Nicholson.

1. But the truth of it is this, if you are a Christian then your life has been affected by adoption as well.

a. You have been adopted by a heavenly father. And through that adoption, we are invited and integrated into the eternal loving relationship of the Trinity.

i. And I can’t even begin to list the benefits of our adoption as Christians. Read Romans 8, Galatians 4, Ephesians 1.

6. But for Some… But for all of here this morning, there is one hurdle that we need to overcome. Because seeing God as our Father has a lot to do with our relationship with our earthly fathers.

a. Maybe your father was a complete tyrant – or maybe completely absent. Maybe you grew up without a father.

i. Maybe your father was physically present, but didn’t really involve himself too much in your life.

1. Or maybe your daddy did the best he could and raised you the best he knew how.

b. Maybe for you, viewing God as your Father is easily. Maybe you had or have a great daddy. I have a great dad. I was reminded of that this week.

i. Story of sleeping of Veronica’s floor this week and how my dad did that for me.

1. But as good as my dad is, and as good as yours might have been or is now, know that your heavenly father is even better.

c. But maybe you have a hard time viewing God as your father, because your earthly father was a tyrant or he was abusive. Maybe the term ‘father’ brings up all kinds of negative feelings in you.

i. If this is where you are, then you need to spend time strengthening this part of your theology.

1. I would invite you the spend time reading and studying the passage just mentioned. Ephesians 1, Galatians 4, Romans 8. There are chapters that describe the fatherly attributes of God.

a. Listen to the song “Good Good Father” – we’re going to close with it – and the let the truth of that song just wash over you. Put it on repeat until you believe it.

d. But perhaps the passage that best describes God as Father is found in Luke 15. We know it as the parable of the Prodigal Son, but this parable isn’t really about the son at all – it’s about the father.

i. A father had a son whom he loved more than life itself. But the son wanted to be a self-made man. He wanted to live a self-indulgent life. So the son took his inheritance and left home.

1. And after squandering all he had and begging for food, the son decided to go home and grovel at his father’s feet for a job.

a. And what a shock this son received.

e. The father of this parable didn’t yell or chastise or reprimand, like an earthly father would.

i. No, this father was longing for this day. He was waiting for it, watching for it, and when the day finally came – the Father went running. He ran out to meet the son while he was still a long ways off.

1. The father didn’t wait for the son to come to him; the Father ran out to meet him.

f. And before the son could get a word of his prepared speech out, the Father scooped him up in his arms, kissed him, hugged him, and ordered that a party be thrown in honour of his return

i. That’s the kind of God we serve; that’s the kind of heavenly father we have.

g. He’s not waiting for us to mess up so he can punish us. He’s waiting for us to come home so he can celebrate our return.

i. We serve a God is infinitely powerful, his greatness no one can fathom, but we serve a God who is so almighty, that when we come to him, he bends down, scoops us up in his arms, he sits us on his lap and says, “Please, call me dad.”

h. This is what it means to say, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.”