Apostles' Creed Sermon - 16

Apostles’ Creed – Amen

2 Corinthians 1:20

1. Introduction – So this morning is the 16th and final week we’re looking at the Apostles’ Creed.

a. What a journey it has been. We started the second week of January and we have systematically, line by line made our way through this document – stopping along the way to study each concept.

i. I wanted to take this one last week to remind you of what we’ve studied throughout this series. This morning is more of a review of some highlights, a reminder of the purpose of our study, and we’ll end with a challenge.

b. I said from the outset of this series that there is no saving power in these words. The Apostles’ Creed isn’t a magical incantation where if you recite these words enough times you’ll become a Christian.

i. You become a Christian only through God’s grace and through faith in Jesus Christ.

1. The Creed has no saving power on its own, but it has a reflective power.

a. The Creed points to the truths that are taught in the Bible. The Creed can’t save you from your sins, but it points you to the one who can.

i. The Creed reflects the love, grace, mercy and offer of salvation from God.

c. Also, I haven’t put these images up in a couple weeks, but hopefully we’ll remember why they made an appearance.

i. One of my goals was to help you round out your faith. To take your faith, which can often look like a pear, really strong in some sections and weak in others, and round it out in to more of an apple shape.

1. If you look carefully at the Apostles’ Creed you’ll see that its 16 lines cover a wide variety of topics.

a. It states that God created everything, but doesn’t get bogged down in unnecessary details.

i. It states that Jesus will come back, but doesn’t state when, or where or how.

ii. So, one of my goals was to bulk up your faith – to strengthen areas of your faith that are weak or you aren’t necessarily drawn to.

1. We all have areas that we love to study. Maybe you love to reflect on the love and mercy of God – and that’s great, God is love, but we also have to balance that out by reminding ourselves that God is also a jealous God and a just God and punishes sin.

a. We need to be reminded of both aspects of God’s character. Love is meaningless if there are no consequences for rejecting that love.

2. Or maybe you love to focus on God’s justice and wrath – so you need to be reminded that God is a good Father.

iii. Maybe you have a hard time believing that your sins are forgiven – so the Creed reminds us that God does indeed forgive our sins.

1. Or you have a small view of the church – have a hard time seeing beyond this building and these people – the Creed states that the church is holy and universal.

a. And we could go on and on.

i. If we focus only on certain areas of faith – other, vitally important areas will get underdeveloped and we will have an asymmetrical looking faith – like a pear.

1. My goal throughout this series was to strengthen those underdeveloped areas and round them out – kinda like an apple.

d. I pray that this has happened for you. I pray that you have been encouraged in your faith, yet challenged.

i. I pray that your feet have been firmly planted on this foundation. But I also pray that the Holy Spirit has convicted you, stretched you, challenged you to grow in your theological understanding of the Christian faith.

1. I know in speaking with some of you that my goal has been accomplished. This series has gotten you thinking theologically, it has been informative and challenging, and it has firmly planted you in the historical roots of the Christian faith.

2. Amen – So, today we come to the last word of the Creed. It’s a familiar word – one that is said often throughout a worship service.

a. But this is an important word and it really acts as the exclamation point of the entire creed.

b. But what does it Amen even mean? Is it simply a throwaway word we say at the end of a prayer – to let God know you’re done praying?

i. Well, no – the word “Amen” is used frequently throughout Scripture. It means ‘let it be so” or “I believe this to be true.”

c. So, when said at the end of a prayer, whatever that prayer is for – thanksgiving, repentance, healing, food…Amen states that you believe God can and will – according to his own will – heal the sick, save loved ones from sin – use food to nourish us.

i. Amen was used as a corporate response throughout the history of Israel. It was used in response to the promise of God pouring out his blessing on Israel.

1. When the elders of Israel or the priests in a worship service or covenant renewal ceremony state that God would bless them if they followed and obeyed him – the people would response with an Amen.

ii. But the people also said “Amen” in response to a promise of God to curse them for their disobedience.

1. In a worship service, if the elders of the priests read that God will hand them over to their enemies if they turned their backs on God and worshipped false gods – the people of Israel would respond – AMEN – we believe this to be true.

d. The apostle Paul placed the word “Amen” after praises to God or benedictions.

e. So think about this word Amen as it is placed at the end of the Apostles’ Creed.

i. What are we saying? That we’re done? No, we’re actually ending where we started.

f. We started this series, and we repeat every week, the simply phrase “I Believe.” And we go on to say all these basic and foundation truths of our faith.

i. And as we make our way to the end of the Creed, we finish by saying, “Let it be so.” We finish by saying, “I believe that these statements are true.”

1. Jesus will come again…amen. The church is holy and universal... amen. My sins have been forgiven…amen. And so on.

g. The Creed ends up being book-ended by these 2 statements of belief. I believing in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I believe that all their work is reliable, faithful and true. Amen. Let it be so.

3. Recapping – And for the rest of our time this morning, we are simply going to review and remind ourselves of what we’ve looked at, studied, and the foundational truths that our faith and hope is built on.

a. And at the end, hopefully we’ll able to respond in unison with a hearty “Amen” to all of these statements.

b. Way back at the beginning of this series we studying the words “I believe.” Belief is not simply knowing facts or knowing about someone or something – belief involves both the head and the heart.

i. And God can work both ways. Belief can start in the mind through carefully studying and exploring the truths of the faith. It can start as understanding in the mind and work its way down in to the heart to become belief.

1. Or it can start in our hearts – because we believe something in our hearts, it should cause us to want to get to know more about the Christian faith in an intellectual way.

a. As Christians, our faith engages both our hearts, as God moves and works in our inner being, but our faith also engages our minds, as we carefully and theologically think through our faith.

c. The Creed states, I believe, not “I know about”. I says I believe in – in my heart and mind, and right down to the very core of my being, I believe these things to be true.

d. I believe in God the Father. When we studied God the Father, we learned that he is an infinitely powerful yet intimately personal Father.

i. The words tell the story. God, Almighty. I sing the mighty power of God.

1. God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things – so powerful he made the world by talking…imagine what he could do if he put a little effort in to it?

ii. But God Almighty is also an intimately personal Father. He’s a good Father, loving, gracious and merciful; he welcomes us home when we’ve gone astray.

1. To believe in God is to have this well-balanced theology that God is powerful, creative, holy and just – but he is also loving, forgiving and full of mercy.

4. Jesus Christ – In the middle section, the longest section of the Creed, we studied the life of Jesus.

a. We affirmed out belief in the virgin birth – as a sign of both his humanity and his divinity.

i. We affirmed our belief that Jesus’ life was fraught with tragedy. In his life he suffered, at his death he suffered under Pontius Pilate.

1. And remember that Pilate’s name is recorded in this Creed to root these events in history. Pilate ruled from 26-36AD, so the suffered, death and resurrection of Jesus happened during those years.

b. We believe that Jesus suffered a physical beating, he was nailed to a cross and on that cross he died. His was a substitutionary death for the sin of mankind.

i. The Creed tells us that Jesus didn’t simply swoon or pass out appear – he didn’t appear to be dead, he really was dead.

ii. The Creed affirms this with the line, “he descended to the dead.”

1. What that means is that his soul separated from his body; not that he literally went to hell, but he went to Paradise, where he awaited his resurrection.

c. We believe, as we celebrated last week, that on the third day, Jesus rose again from the dead. We believe that 40 days later he ascended back to have, that he is seated at the right hand of God…

i. And while he is there Jesus is preparing for his return, he is preparing a place for you, and he is interceding for you – he is paying your prayers and pleading your case before the Father.

1. Before the throne of God above, you have a strong a perfect plea.

d. And we also believe that one day, a day only known to the Father, Jesus will come back to earth. He will come in judgment.

i. He will judge the righteous based on their faith and the evidence of their faith – and they will be welcomed into the eternal kingdom of God.

1. But Jesus will also judge the unrighteous – and they will be sent away to hell, a place of eternal conscious torment.

5. The Holy Spirit – We also believe that God has not left us alone on earth, but he has sent his Holy Spirit to fill each person who believes in Jesus.

a. The Spirit equips each Christian with unique and specific gifts in order to serve and edify the local church.

i. And the fruit of the Spirit help Christians develop a well-rounded character.

b. We believe that the church is of utmost importance to the development of our faith. The church is not a place we go to – it is who we are.

i. The building is just a meeting place for the church, because we are the church.

c. The church exists on two simultaneous levels. The holy catholic church is the worldwide church God – comprised of Bible believing, gospel preaching, God glorifying churches.

i. But we also believe in the communion of saints – the local church. It is in the local church where we worship, nurture Christian relationships, where we learn to love our neighbours, where we practice forgiveness, and where we work out the one another statements that are found in the Bible.

d. We also believe in forgiveness. We stake our faith and build our faith around the fact of forgiveness.

i. We believe that God can and will forgive our sins when we come to him in humble and genuine repentance.

1. But we also believe that because we have been forgiven, we must also forgive others when they sin against us.

a. We pray it in the Lord’s Prayer – in the same manner and to the same degree that I forgive others, Lord, please forgive me. That’s a pretty heavy and a pretty serious request.

e. And our faith is built on events that haven’t even happened yet. We believe that just like Jesus we will be physically and bodily resurrected.

i. Whether we are alive when this happens, or long dead, in the twinkling of an eye we will be transformed – given new, perfected and resurrected bodies, that will most likely bear the marks of our earthly journey.

f. And we believe that everyone who has ever lived will receive life everlasting. The question becomes where will that life everlasting be spent.

i. Those who accepted Jesus in this lifetime will be accepted by Jesus for all of eternity. And those who rejected Jesus in this lifetime will be rejected by Jesus for all of eternity.

6. The Danger – I love the Apostles’ Creed. It is neither vague nor complex.

a. But there’s a real danger here. The danger is to mindlessly or thoughtlessly repeat these words without them having any impact on your life.

i. Do you see and do you understand just how counter-cultural these words are?

b. Critics of Christianity argue that we have memorized beliefs, memorized prayers and memorized creeds – and they argue that even though we have these things memorized, our lives aren’t impacted or changed by them.

i. And when we mindlessly repeat these words, when we thoughtlessly profess these words…when we hear a sermon and think, “oh that’s nice” – if we spend 16 weeks studying the foundational truths of our faith, and our actions and attitudes aren’t changed…then we are proving our critics right.

c. When we move on from week to week, when the words and truths of this Creed aren’t making a lick of difference in our lives, when they don’t cause to want to make an impact for Jesus in our world, then we are proving our critics right…

i. And we are not living the kind of counter-cultural life described in the Creed and the kind of life Jesus called us to.

1. When we profess, and affirm the creed – these aren’t words that are naively said and lazily accepted.

a. We are professing that we don’t believe what the world offers. We are stating we believe what God offers.

2. We don’t believe in the progressive liberalism that is sweeping our world, we don’t believe in materialism or an anything goes attitude toward behaviour and religion.

a. When we profess the words of the Creed – we are rejecting all of those things and we are planting our feet and building the foundation of our lives on the historic truths of the Christian faith.

i. And those truths have always been counter-cultural, and will always be counter-cultural. The truths professed in the Bible and in the Apostles’ Creed will always look different than the world around us.

7. Conclusion – In the end, we choose to believe these truths or to reject them. We choose if they are going to impact our lives, or not.

a. This is how the Creed begins and it is how it ends. I choose to believe in God. I choose to build my life upon this foundation.

i. Everyone worships something. Everyone single person lives their life by putting their faith in something – and when we affirm the word of the Creed we are saying that since I live my life by faith anyway, I’ll place my faith here and in no other.

b. I pray you have gained strength and clarity in your love and knowledge of God. I pray that you experienced spiritual guidance and theological instruction through these sermons I have presented.

c. I am going to close this morning with an invitation.

i. If you are here this morning, if you’ve been here for a few weeks, months and even years, and you realize you are not a Christian, I invite you to believe, to trust this set of truths.

1. If God is moving and working in your life right this moment, don’t ignore that feeling – talk to someone about it.

a. You don’t have to have it all figured out – I know I don’t. You can come to God with your questions and your doubts, but you can still make the decision to believe…to believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

d. And if you are here and you are a Christian, I invite you to long for a deeper love for God and neighbour.

i. Just because we are finishing this series, doesn’t mean you know all there is to know about theology – we have just barely scratched the surface. Long for a deeper desire to know God more.

1. Long to trust God with your life, seek to follow Jesus more fully than ever, and invite the Holy Spirit to daily fill you and to work in and through you.

e. As we close this morning, will you stand and sing with us – and sing these words thoughtfully and meaningfully – as we express once again the foundational truths of our faith.