Who is God?

What we believe matters. For example, if the gas light comes on in my car, and I believe that it’s because of a fuse problem, I’m going to just keep on jamming to the 80’s playlist that’s banging in my car . But if I believe that light means that I’m low on fuel, I’m going to go to the nearest gas pump and weep bitterly looking at the price of gas as I fill my tank. What we believe matters. What we believe about God matters. It matters because what we believe about God will affect the way we choose to live our lives. It matters because if what we believe is different than what is true, we are worshipping a God we have made in our own image, and not the true God. What we believe matters.

That’s why we, as a church, are going to spend the next nine weeks working through our statement of faith. In late 2019, our elders, staff and a specially chosen committee spent considerable time examining the old statement of faith and choosing which parts were essential to keep going forward and how to articulate them. Our current statement is the result of many months of study, prayer and discussion and one of the unique things about this document, is that it was purposefully written like a creed.

A creed is set of beliefs that guide our actions. It meant to be something that we can remember, something we can use to point others to and something we can use to worship God. At North Park, we affirm two historical creeds.

The first creed we affirm is The Apostles Creed which was created around 100AD and was used as a guide for worship and for doctrine for the early church. It says:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit

and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again.

He ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again

to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

It’s beautiful and simple. The second creed we affirm is the Nicean Creed which was created in the 4th century AD by over 300 church delegates from the known world at the time and sought to add some clarity to the Apostle’s Creed, in particular around the person of the Holy Spirit. it says:

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation

he came down from heaven:

by the power of the Holy Spirit

he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,

and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified

under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again

in accordance with the Scriptures;

he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory

to judge the living and the dead,

and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father.

With the Father and the Son

he is worshipped and glorified.

He has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic

and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism

for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

It’s been an unfortuante loss for the Christian church that many churches don’t teach the creeds anymore. I think that if we were to be better at imparting them to the next genertation, they would understand their own faith better and it would give them a more solid footing for their faith.

So when North Park chose to revamp it’s statement of faith, they made it seem a bit more like a creed. The advantage of this is that it makes it easier to remember what it says and it can more easily be a part of our worship. So for the next 9 weeks, we are going to go through this creed one point at a time and I hope that not only will this series help you understand our church better, it will strengthen your faith and even challenge you in your spiritual journey. So let’s look at the first line of statement and I invite you to read along with me out loud, knowing that we do so together as one church:

There is one true God, the creator and sustainer of all that is, who exists eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We start our statement of faith with the bold declaration that we believe there is one God. To many in our world, our unwavering confidence that there is only one God borders on arrogant. How can we know that we are right and everyone else is wrong? How can we know that our God is the one true God? And I think that is a legit question. And my answer is, we don’t know. We believe. Instead of trying to balance on the fence because we are afraid of being wrong, we confidently have chosen to say our God is the one, true God.

We agree with the prophet Isaiah when he records what God says:

Isaiah 45:5 NIV

I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,

Could we be wrong? Potentially. But, at least to me, the evidence that I have seen that the God of the Bible is the one true God and that he is good to us, he loves us and he saves us has led me to re-orient my whole life around him. But more than just declaring his existence (and his exclusivity), our statement of faith tells us more about who God is. In fact, in our first line, we see three things that describe who God is.

1. God is the Creator

When we look upon the world, when we stare at the cosmos, something stirs in many of us. We experience a sense of wonder at it’s awe-inspiring design and how not only is our planet perfectly situated for life, it is filled with a beauty that goes beyond our imagination. And for those of us in the Christian faith, we look upon that beauty and say “thank you” because we believe that our God is the creator of everything.

Genesis 1:1 NIV

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Now, notice in our statement of faith that we declare that God is the creator, but we don’t say how he did it. This is purposeful. What we don’t say is often as important as what we do say. We declare him our creator, but we leave the understanding of how he created up to you. We believe in having a wide tent for the people of North Park. Some of our people will believe in a literal 6-day creation account, while others may hold tomore of a theistic evolution that says God created us and guided evolution to get us to where we are now. Some will see Adam and Eve as literal, some will see them as representative figureheads. Some will see Genesis 1 as a literal telling of what happened and some will see it as Hebrew poetry, designed to reveal God as creator and how superior he is to the Egyptian gods and to the gods of the different peoples of the ancient near east . Whatever view you hold as to how God created, you are welcome here because the part we agree on -and see as essential- is that God did create the world and he made us in his image. That truth binds us and allows us to worship God together in unity with diversity.

Revelation 4:11 NIV

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Worship is our hearts expression of love and adoration and so, with awe and wonder and thanksgiving, let us be passionate worshippers of our Creator.

2. God is the Sustainer

This point is tied to his aspect of creator but it reveals that God is still hands on in this world. He didn’t just create it and then watches it, without any interference. No, he is still active in the world today. We call this his providence and when the apostle Paul describes it, he says,

Acts 17:28 NIV

‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

And in Colossians he says,

Colossians 1:17 NIV

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

God is the sustainer and I don’t know about you, but that doctrine, that theology gives me hope. It’s a theology that says, “My God has not abandoned me.” It’s a doctrine that declares, “God is still here.” No matter how badly we mess up this world, no matter what sins we commit, no matter what evils we perpetuate, our God is still here, he is still working. He is still bringing rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. And maybe there is a good note in there: If God hasn’t given up on us yet, we shouldn’t give up on him. If God is still bringing life into this world, if God is still redeeming humanity, if God is still giving us sunrises and sunsets, then we can still give him glory. We can still give him praise, we can still give him our devotion, we can still give him our obedience.

So many people think that because they aren’t seeing the supernatural miracles they have been praying and hoping for, God has abandoned them. But, just look around. Look at the people in the room with you, each one made in the image of God. Look at the trees, displaying God’s splendour. Look at the sky and be in awe of his majesty. Our creator is also our sustainer and so we can fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah when he declares:

Isaiah 12:4–6 NIV

In that day you will say: “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

So in this first line in our statement of faith, we have declared that we believe that there is one, true God and that he is the creator and sustainer of all that is. And many people can get on board with that. But the third point about who God is may be the most confusing, and yet important, doctrine that we have.

3. God is Triune

What do we mean by triune? This is the doctrine of the Trinity - that God, who is one, exists eternally as three persons - the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and each person is equally divine in essence and attributes. They are equal, they are distinct, and they are one. This is how God has revealed himself in the Bible.

Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Matthew 3:16–17 NIV

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

John 1:1–3 NIV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Acts 5:3–4 NIV

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

So, we see from this small sampling of verses, and there are more, that God has revealed himself as one God eternally existing in three persons and yet, if we are honest, how something can be both one and three makes no sense to our human minds.

Augustine of Hippo (modern day Algeria) once said, “Whoever denies the Trinity is in danger of losing his salvation; whoever tries to understand the Trinity is in danger of losing his mind.”

But because it is so confusing and yet so important, in 325AD, over 300 delegates came to Nicea (which is in modern day Turkey) and there, at a special church council, wrestled with this very issue. Eventually, as a guide to help Christians understand the Trinity they came up with the Nicene Creed, which I read earlier.

This doctrine cannot be fully explained in a way that makes total sense to people - it is mysterious. How can something be one, and yet three? It’s hard to compute for us, which is why many people, even well meaning Christians, often fall into one of two theological errors in regards to the Trinity - either modalism or tri-theism.

Dr. Terry Tiessen, a theologian who attends our Fanshawe campus and who wrote a commentary on the statement of faith describes those two errors like this:

“Modalism is a form of unitarianism which asserts that God is one, but that he manifests himself in three different modes or forms. Nicea recognized that this does not do justice to the clear teaching of Scripture that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all equally and indivisibly divine persons. In our efforts to avoid modalism, however, we might risk becoming closet tritheists, thinking of God as three distinct Gods who live in happy community with one another.”

We have to be careful not to fall into this temptation to rationalize this mystery and by doing so, redefine God himself. God has revealed himself as Triune and to alter that is to remake God in a more palatable way for yourself.

So on a practical level, why is this doctrine so important to get right? Because it is key for how you and I live as Christians. If Jesus isn’t God, then his sacrifice isn’t sufficient to pay for the eternal debt that our sin caused. If the Holy Spirit isn’t God, then we can’t trust that voice that leads us in our faith. If they are equal but separate gods, then they do not share the same essence and therefore Jesus can’t be the exact representation or image of the Father like it says in the Bible.

If we are going to wallow in the love the Father has lavished on us, if we are going to trust ourselves to the salvation work of Jesus, if we are going to let the Holy Spirit lead us, then the Trinity is a key doctrine for us to embrace.

We believe there is one true God, the creator and sustainer of all that is, who exists eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

What we believe informs what we do. We live our lives out of our beliefs which means, when you look at where you are in your life, it is the result of what you have either consciously or unconsciously believed. So how does this statement affect us? What practical implications are there because of it?

We have a divine purpose

If God doesn’t exist, then my purpose in life is far less clear. Am I to make life as easy and comfortable for myself as I can? That feels a little self-centered to me. Am I to make the world better for others? Why? Why not just destroy the planet in pursuit of getting what I want? The fact that there is something within me that cares for the welfare of others who cannot benefit me, points me to the truth that I exist for a reason that is beyond me.

But we have been created by our Creator - the one true God and he created us for purpose. So what is that purpose? It’s to glorify God.

Isaiah 43:6–7 NIV

I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth— everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

But what does it mean to glorify God? It means we seek please God with our thoughts, with our actions, in our relationships, and in our choices. It means we put God’s will above our own. It means we love others like God loves them. It means we celebrate the presence and the work of God in us and through us.

We glorify God when we hold someone’s hand and pray with them because they just found out they have cancer. We glorify God when we look a homeless person in the eye, give them dignity and bless them generously. We glorify God when we say no to the lure of pornography when no one else is home. We glorify God when we pick up garbage in the streets. We glorify God when we empower the oppressed to reach their potential.

Our purpose is to glorify our creator, the one, true God.

2. Related to glorifying God, this statement reminds us to be thankful.

We have a God who is the sustainer of life. He did not create us and then move on. He is not far off, watching but not doing anything. He is currently active and is with us. He brings rain for our crops, and sunshine for our souls. He brings difficult people into our lives to help us grow and people who lift our hearts and give us the strength to endure one more day. He creates spectacular sunrises and sunsets for us to behold.

Our God is with us in the myriad of miracles that happen every day that we take for granted. So, as you go about this week, find some time and disconnect from all your devices and go outside. See his providence all around you, and rejoice with thanksgiving because your God has not forgotten you. He is with you, showering you in love and beauty. So open your eyes and behold.

3. Praise our God, the three-in-one.

Our God is one God, eternally existing in three persons. So praise the Father, who created you, who loves you despite your sins and your failures, and who has a plan and a purpose for you.

Praise the Son, who not only showed us what an abundant life really looks like, he willingly went to the cross on our behalf, paying the debt for our sin that we couldn’t pay, and who reconciles us to the Father who forgives all our sin.

Praise the Spirit, who is helping you glorify God by becoming more like Jesus and who lives in you, empowering you to serve God; helping others to find peace with God and life for their souls.

We believe there is one true God, the creator and sustainer of all that is, who exists eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let’s praise our God.

Pray.