I believe in the Apostle's Creed

Introduction and Scripture

1 John 1:1–4 NIV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

Pray.

Background for Apostle’s Creed

The Apostles’ Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism Introduction: The Ancient Catechism

On the eve of Easter Sunday, a group of believers has stayed up all night in a vigil of prayer, scriptural reading, and instruction. The most important moment of their lives is fast approaching. For years they have been preparing for this day.

When the rooster crows at dawn, they are led out to a pool of flowing water. They remove their clothes. The women let down their hair and remove their jewelry. They renounce Satan and are anointed from head to foot with oil. They are led naked into the water. Then they are asked a question: “Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?” They reply, “I believe!” And they are plunged down in the water and raised up again.

They are asked a second question: “Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Holy Spirit and Mary the virgin and was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was dead and buried and rose on the third day alive from the dead and ascended in the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father and will come to judge the living and the dead?” Again they confess, “I believe!” And again they are immersed in the water.

Then a third question: “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit and the holy church and the resurrection of the flesh?” A third time they cry, “I believe!” And a third time they are immersed. When they emerge from the water they are again anointed with oil. They are clothed, blessed, and led into the assembly of believers, where they will share for the first time in the eucharistic meal. Finally they are sent out into the world to do good works and to grow in faith.

What I have done here is invite you into a first hand account of the baptism vigil documented in an early third century document.

This is the roots of the first usage of the Apostle’s creed.

A common misnomer is that the apostle’s wrote the creed. Like some of the authors of the new testament…the 12 disciples, they got together and wrote out this definitive creed. That is not the case. The apostle’s creed represents the faith of the apostle’s for sure.

This creed began in the very first church in those centuries of growth and persecution. It was the boundaries of belief, for anyone to come into the church....these statements were ones that they must hold to and profess.

It is one of our historic creeds and one that we say, though I do not believe it has been used in here in any real regular way, but my hope is that you will come to understand why we need to say it and it means so much to the Church.

There is some work we need to do before we begin working through it all and today I want to do a little background work:

This is for you notetakers… here is my outline:

I. Why is the Apostle’s Creed important?

II. How do we know the God of this creed?

III. How do we believe?

Why is the Apostle’s Creed important?

What we believe is important

It is biblical

The creed teaches, anchors, directs

1. Belief:

I want to say a word about belief. Believing in something requires obedience or action. The creed within itself has no magical powers. Is it formative to say it every day? Does saying something over and over again affect you, sure but so does telling yourself that you are stupid or valueless everyday. Beyond the formation of repetition, this creed has no power to save within it.

this creed will not be anything other than a statement if we don’t live in it. If it does not shape how we live in the world.

Some of us have never leaned into these statements. We don’t know what we think about the virgin birth, or the ascension, or judgement. So some of us actually do not believe all that is found in the creed.

Secondly, You can know these words and not believe them. Not care much about what you are saying. Me adding this creed to our service will not ensure that we are all living out the same faith.

This series should deepen our devotion to what we believe. And in stating it communally it should bind us together.

2. Biblical:

Second: the truths within this creed are completely biblical.

There are some of you in the room that are nerding out right now. High liturgical background. So this is like your jam right now.

There are some of you that are bible church bible belt, extra-vangelical…and you are going, “I only need one creed and that is the word of God.”

3. Teaches, Anchors, Directs

The Apostle’s Creed (and any of our creeds held by the historic church) do the following:

Why is the creed important?

It teaches the faith

Catechism = echo. Teaches the faith.

2. It anchors our faith to nonnegotiable truth

This creed ties us to the mast of our faith so that we do not drift where we do not belong.

Week 1 when I got here, Dr. Baker misspoke and mentioned that the seminary I am attending is Union Theological Seminary. I go to United Theological Seminary. I had to correct him because I was worried yall would google Union. At the time Union had just been allover the social media world because they had a worship service where they filled the sanctuary with plants and worshipped them for earth day. They asked the plants for forgiveness and sang to them. Weird.

More importantly, the president of the seminary was interviewed by the New York Times and admitted to denying the virgin birth and the resurrection.

When you these truths become negotiable, then a lot of weird stuff begins to happen....thus our denominational struggle.

3. It directs our worship in the proper direction

We say the Creed because it is formational and directional. For some of us we have said the pledge to flag of the US more than we have the Creed and this is the most important statement of allegiance we have in our faith. The most clear.

We sing about all kinds of subjective things here. We study and might talk about subjectivity. Like what we feel and what we are learning, and what do we do when we encounter God and What we feel in the presence of God and what salvation feels like.

This is the one thing where the subjective “I” holds to objective truths.

I believe in God the Father almighty. And in Jesus Christ is only son our Lord. And in the Holy Spirit, and the forgiveness of sins, and eternal life.

How do we know the God of this Creed?

Now for me to say that these are even objective truths is to make the claim that we can know that they are true. Do you know what I mean by objective truths? Like it is not true just because I say so....but there is proof, communal verifiability, and the historic confirmation.

How can we say we know God?

If you share my experience....very well-meaning people in my life would just tell me over and over again, well, we know by faith.

Faith statements, the construct of the Christian faith represented in the creed is not just born in a vacuum.

1 John 1:1 NIV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

God has revealed himself to us: (Thomas Oden)

“Revelation is not primarily the imparting of information but rather the self-giving and self-evidencing of God.”

1. General Revelation

God is the source of life. God is the creator of life itself and all creation points to God. General revelation is the smallness you feel on the edge of the Grand Canyon, or the emotion evoked in Colorado during perfect weather. General revelation is about beauty and creativity.

Luke’s Xray book. Amazed at the body.

Or my dad’s surgery

2. Revelation in history of Israel

God has become especially and conspicuously known through a particular history, the history of Israel. In order for God to reveal himself, God had to come at a time and a place.

The “scandal of particularity:” A certain people. To make them a nation to the nations. God coming in the flesh to a single family at a specific time and place. God coming in Jesus is the culmination of the whole history of Israel.

and within the revelation of history of Israel, the revelation of scripture. This tell the story of us.

This is us.

3. Revelation of Jesus

The word of God. The word God had for the world is Jesus. Paul: the full revelation of God. Or the fullness of God.

Hidden behind the back of Jesus is not an unknown God.

God of Justice: Jesus hung out with the poor, the destitute, the sick

God of love: Jesus spent time with friends, even down to his death

God of mercy: Jesus comes back to his disciples that abandoned him

God of wisdom: even in humanness, Jesus knew himself and knew how to follow the way of the father

God of compassion: Jesus weeping at the tomb of lazarus

Jesus is the God-man, who reveals to us God and man.

This God can be known.

How do we believe?

We believe by the fellowship:

look at the text again.....

1 John 1:2–4 NIV

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

John says the most amazing thing here, the life appeared..... we have seen and touched and heard and listened.... in other words,

From the beginning (maker of heaven and earth)

Came the life (Jesus the only son)

We have seen (born, died, raised)

The content of the creed is right here. But do you get the scandal, he is saying the eternal one, the word of life, is in our small group, in our fellowship and he is inviting you to join.

If believing in the trinity makes your brain hurt, its ok, it does me too.

Augustine says “If you can’t understand, believe, and then you’ll understand.”

God’s trustworthiness is verified by experience.

That doesn’t mean that Christian belief is an irrational leap into the dark. It is more like tasting a dish that you have never tried. You have seen other people enjoying it; you have read the reviews; the chef swears you’ll like it. There are good grounds for trusting, but you will never know for sure until you try it. “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” sings the psalmist (Ps 34:8). The first act is an act of trust that gives rise to ever-increasing certainty, which in turn nourishes a deeper and a more knowledgeable trust.

This is not blind faith, let me try another illustration.

Blind, irrational thing would be to say “there is a stool behind me.”

But now. There is a stool and I cannot see it....

God can be known. In God is salvation, the forgiveness of sins, God’s life for you now and always, and we must continually sit in these truths, anchor ourselves to them. Believe in them.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

As the band comes back, I want to invite you to stand and say this creed together.

I believe in God the Father Almighty.....