| Andrew Lim
27 April 2008
What is a creed?
The word “creed” / is an unusual word / It is not used often
It comes from the Latin word “credo”
The Latin word “credo” simply means / “I believe”
A creed is what you believe
But it is more than you may first think
After all / you believe a dog has four legs / the fire is hot / ice is cold
But you wouldn’t necessarily call all those things your creed
A creed is a belief that makes a difference in your life
It affects how you live / and what you value / and cherish
The early church developed creeds
because they were troubled by the rise of different sects
which began believing all sorts of nonsense about who Jesus was
The earliest sect was Gnosticism
followed by Arianism and Nestorianism
And the early church formulated the creed to combat false beliefs
This creed also protected true believers
during the dark days of persecutions
when Christians met secretly in the catacombs
The earliest universally accepted Christian creed is the Apostles Creed
formulated in the first century of the faith
about the year 100 AD or before / and is still in use today
Then came the Nicene Creed / in the year 325
Together / these two creeds sum up
the core belief of 99% of all Christians worldwide
Today / some liturgical churches / like Lutheran Church / Anglican Church
still use the creed / as part of their worship each Sunday
A creed us a concise statement which sums up all our core beliefs
- it is our belief / put into a nutshell
What marks the creeds out as something to be cherished
is that it is both historical and universal
A creed is the cherished possession
of the church worldwide / all down through the ages
It is historical / in that it identifies us
with all believers in Christ throughout all ages
It is universal / in that I could go into a church anywhere in the world
whether in Bangkok or Oslo / Nairobi
and together with people I have never met before
recite together / a creed binds us together
as true brothers and sisters
The creed is not just the expression of any one individual
What makes the creed important is that left to ourselves
we may make a statement that in the end
turns out to be inaccurate / imprecise and even mistaken or erroneous
Left to each individual to come out with a concise statement of belief
we might run into the danger of inaccuracy or even heresy
We can say / that the creeds save-guard our beliefs
In the weeks ahead / we will go through the Apostles’ Creed
and we will discover the teachings of the Bible
behind each of the creedal statement
This morning we begin with the very first line of the creed / “I believe”
Now the sentence / “I believe” / is an incomplete sentence
It is not finished until you say what you believe
When I first came to NZ / I saw this fruit shop / that called “Fresh As”
I remember being puzzled over it
Surely “fresh as” isn’t complete / until you say “fresh” as what?
- like fresh as the morning dew / or something like that
- but as it turned out / its really an exclamation / not a sentence
But the sentence / “I believe” / is an incomplete sentence
It is not finished until you say what you believe
and over the next many weeks we will affirm what we believe
But for now / those words “I believe” are vital enough to warrant a sermon
Firstly / although the Apostles’ Creed begins with the word “I”
we are conscious that we are making this affirmation
together with everyone standing around us making the same affirmation
I am not making this affirmation in isolation / not in any private way
I stand where million sin ancient past have stood
And I am standing with millions all over the world
when I say “I believe”
The creed is meant to be recited in the company of other believers
- all prepared to stake their lives / on the same belief
So what does it mean to say “I believe”
Just what does it mean to say I “believe”
To say “I believe” is to say that there are things you believe to be true
it is to accept with our minds / that something is true
Truth is important to all of us
We want to know the truth / affirm / uphold and teach the truth
So to say “I believe” is to affirm that there are some things
I hold in my mind to be true
But what makes a belief / a true belief? / The answer is really very simple
A belief is a true belief / if it corresponds with reality out there
A statement is true / if and only if / it corresponds with factual reality
So if I say “There is a cat in this sanctuary right now”
that statement is true / if indeed there IS a cat in this sanctuary
If there isn’t a cat in here / then it is a false statement
So the statement “There is a cat in this room” is false because it fails
to correspond to the actual objective state of affairs
Of course / I could go on to believe it / but I would be believing a lie
But / o the other hand / if there IS a cat in this sanctuary
then even if you go on to deny it / it wouldn’t change a thing
Remember the earth was round / even at a time
when every single person on earth believed it was fat as a pancake
Truth does not change with your denial of it / or your unbelief of it
Did you know that the Bible itself / affirms this way of looking at truth
When the Ten Commandments declare
“You shall not give false testimony”
Really God is here saying
“If a matter is not right / you should not affirm it”
That / is the meaning of the command
“You shall not give false testimony”
Paul himself held to this view of truth
He said / “If Christ has not been raised
our preaching is useless and so is your faith” 1 Cor 15:14-15
In other words he is saying / “If a thing isn’t true / and you preach it
you’re only deluding yourself”
If this is the way to look at truth
that truth is something that corresponds to the actual state of affairs out there
then / when we recite the Apostles Creed
we are saying / that we believe a number of things to be true
- that God is the creator of heaven and earth
- that Jesus Christ is God’s only begotten Son
- that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
- that He was born of the Virgin Mary
- that He suffered under Pontius Pilate / was crucified dead and buried
- that He descended into hell
- that the third day he rose again from the dead
and so on right across the entire creed
We’re saying / that we believe
that each of those statements / actually correspond with reality
And on top of that / we’re saying / that those statements are as true
as saying / that there is a piano in this sanctuary
Now this is huge! When you come to think about it / this is huge
It is huge because we’re insisting
that when we say / for example that He was born of the Virgin Mary
that such a statements / is not in any way inferior
to the factual statements we make about everyday matters
So there is really no different in saying
I believe the French novel is on the top right hand shelf
I believe the Son of God sits on the right hand of the Father
In the same way that believe
that the French novel is on the top right hand shelf
I believe the Son of God sits on the right hand of the Father
We are asserting that both statements are of equal value
We do not think that religious statements are in any way
less true / less real / than statements about the common stuff of life
When we say / Jesus was born of the virgin Mary
suffered under Pontius Pilate / was crucified / dead / and buried
the third day he rose / and ascended into heaven”
When we say all that / we’re saying / that either happened or it didn’t
If it didn’t / then we might as well close all the Christian churches
Paul said / in that case / “we have nothing to preach
and you have nothing to believe” / 1 Corinthians 15:14
So that’s the first meaning of what it means when we say “I believe”
It is to affirm / that some things about God are true
and they actually correspond to reality
But secondly / to say “I believe” also means
that I am committing myself to these things I believe in
Factual knowledge is important / but it isn’t enough
Remember James reminds us saying / “You believe that God is one
that’s great / but remember
even the demons believe and shudder” / Js 2: 19-20
See the devil also believes that Jesus is the Son of God
but their believe does not go on to commitment
they will not submit themselves to the truth
There are literally millions of nominal Christians in this world
These are people who will agree with you that Jesus is the Son of God
But to them it is simply a piece of factual knowledge
It stays in the head / never comes down to the heart
Someone says that it is about 12 inches from head to heart
and it is the hardest 12 inches to travel
But if you are to truly say “I believe” / it has to come from the heart
In the spiritual realm
belief means nothing if it is not back up by commitment of the heart
There is a world of difference between a belief and commitment
Belief / a matter of intellect / something hold in your head
Commitment is a matter of will / something cherished in heart
You may “hold” a belief / but you “embrace” a commitment
Belief says: “I am convinced”
Commitment says: “I am convicted” / “My heart is set on it”
You will argue for your beliefs / but you will die for your commitment
A belief is something you hold loosely in the hand
If pressure gets tight enough / you loosen your grip / let it slip away
But a commitment is something you embrace in the heart
No pressure / no storm - no matter how violent can destroy it
James Calvert the great missionary felt the call of God to go to Fiji
He knew that it might have to mean death for him
for the island was then inhabited by cannibals
For a time Calvert remained quiet
to be by himself / he needed to sort things out / calmly
And the Lord brought him to a point when Calvert came to know
without a shadow of a doubt / what the Lord wanted of him
and he knelt down / surrender his life to God
and set sail for the island of Fiji
Just before disembarking / the captain of the ship / who
all through the journey had been persuading Calvert
to give up the crazy idea
attempted to persuade Calvert one last time
“You will lose your life / Calvert / don't be fool
It is not too late to turn back / You will die here / You will die here”
And Calvert /making his way down in a little boat turned back
and he said to the captain: “I died / before I came here”
Now / that / is commitment
And to say “I believe” means to commit your life to your belief
Thirdly / to say I believe / is to say I have faith in what I am believing
Your belief is nothing / if you do not have faith in what you believe
There are many people who say they believe in God
but they would be very reluctant to trust God
- they wouldn’t trust / to provide for them
- they don’t trust God / over their future / their lives
Jean Francois Gravelet-Blondin was the world’s greatest tight-rope walker
On 15th September 1860 he performed
one of the most amazing feat / the world had ever seen
Blondin / before a great crowd / walked a tightrope
stretched across Niagara Falls in Canada
The tightrope / made of strong steel cable /was over 50 m above the falls
and it stretched for 350 metres across the falls
One slip / and he would have plunged to certain death
After he had walked across he asked the crowd
if they believed he could carry a person back across the falls
They all shouted “Yes!” and cheered
because they all believed he could do it!
So then he asked for a volunteer
At this point no one spoke up / Everyone was silent
Again Blondin spoke: “I am looking for a volunteer
to be the first person to go across Niagara Falls in a wheelbarrow”
Still no one would come forward / the crowd went quiet
After several minutes a young man / one person did agree to go
His name was Henry Colcord / Blondin’s manager
He alone had real confidence and trust in Blondin’s skill
as a tightrope walker
And the two made their way safely across the Niagara
In the same way / many people say that they believe in God
but in the Bible / belief must be acted out by having faith
Being a Christian / is more than just believing in God
It involves trusting God / by faith / with our lives
The Greek word for “faith” is translated “belief” and “trust”
It means having confidence in His power / wisdom / and goodness
Faith is resting on the fact that God is totally reliable & trustworthy
Jesus looked for faith / when He walked on earth
When He returns / He will still be looking for that faith
for He says in Luke 18:8
“When the Son of Man returns will He find faith on the earth?”
Faith is the essential commodity in the Christian life
It is not optional equipment / not a luxury item
Without faith / there can be no true spiritual life
Did you know / that the true credential of faith / lies in the object of our faith
When people say: “Just have faith” we need to ask: “Faith in what?”
You must have faith in something / or someone
Faith must have an object
There is nothing magical or commendable / simply having faith
You can believe with all your heart / soul and mind / until you turn blue
but if your faith is misplaced / you’re deluded
Faith is only valid / as its object is valid
The crucial thing is not faith / but the object of faith
Faith itself has no power / It is not faith that moves mountain
It is faith in God / that moves mountains
The power of faith lies in its object
What then / is the proper object of our faith?
Jesus puts it plainly: “Have faith in God” / He says
The object of faith is God
Jesus didn’t tell us to have faith
He tells us to have faith in God
There are Christian teachers who will tell you to “have faith in faith”
But the Bible never tells us / to put our faith in our faith
And unknowingly / many of us have placed our faith in our faith
And so some Christians / have treated faith
as is it were a form of self-hypnosis
They try to talk themselves into believing
sort of psyching themselves up to a point where they believe
and then they hurriedly pray “before it melts”
That is positive thinking / not biblical faith
When such people encountered a mountain blocking our way
and they know / that only by faith / can they overcome it
they whip up more faith / hoping it is big enough to do the job
They can muster all the faith they could
but more often than not / they arrive at the sad conclusion
that their faith is not big enough for the task
And they say: “If only my faith is big enough / I would’ve got the job
but my faith is so small / pray for me that I’ll have more faith”
But the fact is that almost everyone who came to Jesus for help
brought along a faith that was weak and imperfect
and yet in spite of their weak faith / Jesus met their need
Remember the incident
when the disciples were crossing the sea / when a storm broke out
Jesus stilled the storm in spite of their weak faith
He didn’t turn to them as said:
“If your faith was stronger I would calm the sea
but because your faith is so weak I’m going to let the boat sink”
What counted was not the size of their faith / but the sort
Although their faith was almost non-existent
it was fixed on the right object / Jesus
What little faith they were able to muster / they brought it to Jesus
It was not faith in their faith / that saved them
but faith in Jesus that saved them
Faith in faith is really faith in yourself
in your ability to conjure up enough courage
in your ability to think positively
in your power to maintain a positive attitude
You are looking at your faith / when you should be looking at Jesus
Don’t look at your faith / look at Jesus
Don’t measure your faith / measure your God
Don’t evaluate your situation / on the basis of your faith
evaluate your situation / on the basis of God’s ability
You say: “But my faith is so weak” Yes / but your God is so strong
Which are you going to trust - your weak faith / or your strong God?
I want for us / to imagine a lake in the heart of winter
when the cold still had an icy grip on everything
and you’re invited to take a walk on ice
- you wouldn’t be walking confidently
- you’ll inch your way gingerly
keeping a nervous eye on the ice / watching for cracks
- you have little faith in the ice
Then you see a man / in the middle of the frozen lake
sitting comfortable on folding chair
hunched over a hole in the ice / and enjoying his fishing!
And you feel a little foolish / as you think of your fear
The point is this:
The man sitting in the middle of the frozen lake / had faith in the ice
You have almost no faith at all / in the ice
Now the crucial question is this: Which one of us was the safest?
- He with his great faith / or you with your little faith?
- Was the man with the great faith / more secure?
It might surprise you / but the answer is “No”
He with the great faith / was no safer than you with my little faith
Though your faith was practically nonexistent
you were was just as safe as the fisherman who possessed great faith
Why? Because it wasn’t his faith that held him up / It was the ice
If it had been your faith supporting you
you would have sunk immediately / for you had little faith
But you with my little faith
was just as safe as the fisherman with his great faith
because it was the same ice that held you both us!!
Now at this point / you ask
What’s the big deal then of having a great faith in the ice?
Well / just look at yourself on the ice
You were timid / afraid / scared / just a bundle of nerve endings!
- constantly looking for cracks in the ice
- fearing that at any moment
the ice is going to betray you / to the icy water beneath
Now picture the old fisherman: He was unafraid to step out on the ice
- he was having a ball of a time / he having all that fun catching fish
- he’s enjoying himself / he’s resting his entire weight on the ice
Many Christians are like the one who’s too afraid
- timid / nervous / afraid to venture out on the Word of God
their eyes constantly searching for cracks in His promises
fearing that God may at any moment abandon them
There is no joy or excitement in their walk
But you get a few Christians / who are like the old fisherman
- they boldly step out on the promises of God
- unafraid in the middle of His will
- their lives are filled with joy and satisfaction
- they rest on the Word of God who cannot lie
That / is the life of great faith
Now if look at the ice-fisherman / and you ask the question:
“I wonder where he got enough nerve to do that”
people living in that area will tell you
“Oh / he lives around here / He knows the ice”
He knows the ice
Now that / is the difference between weak faith and strong faith
- a knowledge of the object of their faith
The Psalmist said:
“Those who know Your name will put their trust in Thee” / Psalm 9:10
And in the Book of Daniel / we read:
“The people who know their God
will display strength and take action" / Daniel 11:32
True faith is authenticated by its object
and the only valid object of our faith / is God
The secret of faith is knowing God
And the greater our knowledge of God and His Word
the greater will be our faith
What a phrase / “He know the ice”
So when we say “I believe” / it means
one / that there are some things I believe to be true
two / to say “I believe” also means
that I am committing myself to these things I believe in
three / to say I believe / is to say I have faith in what I am believing
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