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.