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TRANSCRIPT
John 1:29-4229 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and
said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me
comes a man who ranks before me, because he was
before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this
purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be
revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the
Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained
on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent
me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you
see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who
baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and
have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
35 The next day again John was standing with two of his
disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and
said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples
heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus
turned and saw them following and said to them, “What
are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which
means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to
them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw
where he was staying, and they stayed with him that
day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two
who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his own brother
Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah”
(which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus
looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John.
You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
15 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I
preached to you, which you received, in which you
stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold
fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed
in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day in accordance with the
Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the
twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred
brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive,
though some have fallen asleep.7 Then he appeared
to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one
untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the
least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the
grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me
was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than
any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God
that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we
preach and so you believed.
2 Corinthians 4:7-107 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that
the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We
are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed,
but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not
forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always
carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of
Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
The Creed
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered
under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was
buried;
descended to the dead.
On the third day rose again;
ascended into heaven,
is seated at the right hand of the Father,
will come to judge the living and the dead.
We’re taking the Apostles’ Creed apart phrase by phrase
between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday. Our purpose is
to confirm or reconfirm our faith. Last week we said the
Creed begins by revealing God the Father and that the
beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ is at his baptism
by John.
The second (and longest) segment of the Creed has to
do with revealing God the Son.
Trinity in the Creed
Right off, at the first mention of Jesus, just as at his
baptism, the Triune God is present: “I believe in Jesus
Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the
Holy Spirit.” Jesus the Son of God the Father Almighty,
incarnate through the action of the Holy Spirit.
Do Christians believe in one God or in three?
Moderns and Post-moderns teach that the Trinity
doesn’t matter; that all that is important is that you
believe in God. But the God who revealed himself in
time and space, the God who entered into history and
created history is one God eternally existing in three
persons; a perfect unity, a perfect trinity.
The writers of the Apostles’ Creed are very clear about
the Trinity and they want us to be. The structure of the
Creed includes one phrase about each of the persons of
the Trinity and all three persons are mentioned here in
the incarnation of Jesus. And what an incarnation it is!
The Claims about Jesus
There are twelve specific claims in the Creed about
Jesus of Nazareth, and I have to go through these very
quickly. The words “I believe in Jesus Christ… our Lord”
are not specific claims about Jesus, they are descriptive.
They identify who we’re talking about: Jesus of
Nazareth, and that some believe that he is the long-
promised Christ (that’s a Greek translation of the
Hebrew Messiah), and for those who believe Jesus is the
Christ, he is also Lord. 1 John 5:1 says, “Every one who
believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every
one who loves the parent loves the child. “
Just a reminder at this point: we said last week that the
Creed is not something someone can believe for you.
The Creed is a very personal confession. At every turn it
reinforces, “This is what I believe and what I am staking
my life on by offering a public proclamation of it.” But
there is also a suggestion; just a hint, really, of our
mutual confession as a church when it says, “I believe in
Jesus Christ… our Lord.” I believe in Jesus and we
believe in Jesus.
Like I said, there are twelve specific claims in the Creed
about The words I left out of that phrase, “his only son”
are the first claim about Jesus. Some have suggested
there is one claim for each of the Apostles. Perhaps.
1. His only Son. I know that in 2017 it is hard to
imagine the claim that Jesus is God’s only Son was ever
audacious; but consider that the Greek god Zeus had 92
children. The Roman God Jupiter had three by his only
wife; but he had hundreds of other women; both divine
and human, and many, many offspring. The claim that
Jesus is the only Son of God was truly audacious in the
First Century world. When John 3:16 claims, “For God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life,” it is saying something outrageous to First
Century ears.
2. Conceived by the Holy Spirit. “Joseph, son of David,
do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is
conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:20-21).
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of
the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child
to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. (Luke
1:35) The idea that Greek or Roman gods should have
children wasn’t odd; but that any god should have only
one child was.
3. Born of the Virgin Mary. Even if a god should have
only one child; the union would have been assumed to
be a natural one – the gods of both the Greeks and the
Romans were assumed to be able to have intercourse in
the same way any human would. The claim in Matthew
1:23 as he quotes Isaiah 7:14 changes every thought
anyone had about how the child of a god might come to
be: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and
his name shall be called Emmanuel.”
The next phrase contains words that, if we will
understand them correctly, absolutely change our
model of what it means to receive Christ and to live in
him. We usually read this phrase in English, “He
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and
was buried.”
French writer Jacques Ellul (in his book If You Are the
Son of God)has observed that the original Latin text of
the Creed lacks both punctuation and personal
pronouns. It would be just as valid to translate the
Creed this way in reference to Jesus: “He suffered.
Under Pontius Pilate he was crucified, died, and was
buried.” This may seem to change nothing; but I believe
reading it this way changes everything. The way we
usually read the Creed makes it sound like Jesus’ only
suffering happened at the hands of Pilate. Of course, we
know that was not true.
From the moment of his birth, and more specifically
from the time of his baptism, Jesus lived the life of a
willing suffering servant. Jesus’ sufferings for your
salvation and mine were throughout: his temptation by
Satan in the wilderness; his rejection by those he came
to save; the intimation that he had a demon or worse;
the crowds turning away from following him; weeping
over Jerusalem; betrayed by one of his best friends;
denied by his chosen #2; forsaken by all but one of his
followers at his death. He was beaten; he was stripped
naked. And finally, he suffered crucifixion. Truly it
could be said of Jesus that he was “a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief.”
4. He Suffered.
How is it that the Western Church teaches us to do
everything in our power to avoid suffering? Paul says in
2 Corinthians speaking about the followers of Jesus,
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the
surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We
are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but
not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck
down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the
death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be
manifested in our bodies.” Should we wonder that living
the Christian life is a hard turning away from sin; a
difficult wandering in the wilderness of a world gone
mad; ultimately, a joyful expectation that I will leave
what becomes increasingly a foreign place that I do not
understand to enjoy the presence of my Savior forever?
We exalt Jesus not because he makes this world a better,
happier place for us. We exalt him because we are not
left alone in the midst of it.
How do we know? Because, just as Jesus was incarnate
in time and space, the Creed tells us that he suffered in
time and space. Under Pontius Pilate, on a particular
April day around 30 AD, he was crucified; he died, and
was he was buried. These three things are here to
combat the heresy that circulated widely after the
resurrection that said that Jesus merely fainted on the
cross; that he was not really dead when they buried
him; but revived in the cool air of the tomb and when
the time came, his disciples came and freed him.
Another heresy said that Jesus was not really human;
that he was merely a spirit and that crucifixion was no
pain to him; since his body wasn’t real.
What do you need to confirm or reconfirm today? This
is the core of it; this is why the Creed spends so much
time on the facts of Jesus. Do you accept that Jesus
suffered; that he was crucified, died, and was buried?
5. Crucified
6. Died
7. Buried
More important, to you believe that he gave his life as a
willing victim? Do you believe that; when Jesus died, he
experienced the death you deserve because you were
separated from God?
#8 (if you’re counting): He descended to the dead.
No human being knows exactly what this experience
was like except for Jesus and anyone who has been
raised from the dead. But the Creed affirms that
resurrection is the Christian’s hope; not just Jesus’
resurrection. Yours.
9. On the third day he rose again. The stone that sealed
his tomb was taken away; Jesus’ body was no longer
there. The great proclamation of every believer from
Jesus’ day until now will always be, “He is not here, he
has risen!” Look at how Paul develops this in his first
letter to Corinth: “For I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received: that Christ died for our
sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was
buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance
with the Scriptures.” The most important thing you can
ever tell another person is this central confession.
Of no lesser importance is what happened next. Jesus
could have been born, lived, died, and even rose from
the dead and that wouldn’t have proved that he is God
or that he has any further claim on your life. But the
Creed says,
10. He ascended and
11. is seated at the right hand of the Father.
The Scriptures tell us that Jesus has gone before those
who believe in him and has done what we in our sin
could never do. I said last week that Jesus did not
merely restore our relationship with God the way it was
in the Garden. He improved our condition. His
ascension into heaven and his intimacy with the Father
is our promise as well. Paul develops this in his letter to
Ephesus when he says, “But God, who is rich in mercy,
out of the great love with which he loved us, even when
we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and
raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he
might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:5-7).
Did you know that your best destiny is to just sit
around? One day, when all of this is over, everyone who
has ever put their trust in Christ will collectively enjoy
this kind of intimacy with God. But look! Ephesians 2
tells us we don’t have to wait for that to begin. If you
believe today, you are now seated with him in heavenly
places.
There is no question there is suffering in this world; but
Christians do not suffer for their sins. You do not have
to do penance. You cannot make God more happy with
you than he is at the present moment; you cannot be
more reconciled with God than you are at the present
moment if you believe. The work of reconciliation has
all been done for you. When you believe you become a
Christ-one. From then on you can have the confidence
that you will follow your Lord in all things. You will die;
but you will not “suffer death”. You will not see
corruption. You will not descend to the dead; you will
rise again.
Finally, the Christian has the confidence that Jesus sits
at the right hand of God to judge the world with right
judgment. Charles Wesley got it right when he wrote:
Rejoice in glorious hope!
Jesus the Judge shall come,
And take His servants up
To their eternal home;
We soon shall hear th’ archangel’s voice;
The trump of God shall sound, rejoice!
Beloved. Have you believed these things all your life
long? Or are you sitting there today with your mind
swimming and your heart crying for the first time, “I
believe! I believe!” It doesn’t matter; the servants our
great captain calls to work his vineyard at the 11th hour
receive the same as those he calls at 9 in the morning.
Why? Because all the work has been done already.
The purpose of this study is to confirm or reconfirm
your faith. The words of the Creed are not just
“background” stuff you file away and forget about.
These words are what Paul said to the Corinthians, “I
would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to
you, which you received, in which you stand, and by
which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I
preached to you.” I would have no greater joy than to
hear you rehearsing these central truths to one another
and to your family, friends, and neighbors daily.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
(Screen)
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin
Mary.
He suffered.
Under Pontius Pilate he 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 God the Father
Almighty,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.