Matt Chandler - And in Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord

Hey, how are we doing? Well, excellent! If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those. Matthew 16 is where we’re going to camp out; we’ll be in verses 13 through 16, although we’ll spend the bulk of our time in verse 16. If you don’t have a Bible with you, there’s a hardback black one somewhere around you, and I want to encourage you to grab that. If you’re not a Christian, maybe new to church and don’t quite know how that works, we’ve got the page number behind us. When we say Matthew 16, starting with verse 13, 16 is the big number, the chapter number, and then 13 becomes the verse number, the small number. So if you want to turn there, it’s really important that I’m not just talking about what I think today, but we’re rooted in the word of God.

This is week three of our series through the Apostles’ Creed. The Apostles’ Creed is the oldest of Christian creeds; in fact, it has been used by the church for over a thousand years. It has been employed by the church for two purposes: to correct error and, secondly, to form the people of God and help them develop correct beliefs. It’s meant to bring clarity, to help inform how we think about the community, and ultimately to guide how we counsel ourselves and counsel others.

It’s important to note, as always, that we’re not preaching the Creed, but we’re preaching the Bible. The Creed doesn’t have any authority in and of itself except for what it teaches us about the Word of God. So, it’s always important to remember that I’m not preaching the Creed; I’m preaching the Bible. As we will see here momentarily, I just want to invite you that if I ever stop preaching the Bible, to find a church that does preach the Bible. If I start going a little weird or something, if I begin talking about things that are out of step with God as He has revealed Himself to us in His holy Word, find a church that is more serious about the Bible than we have grown.

Now, one of the things we’ve done over the last few weeks is, as we get to the Creed, we’ve stood together and recited it together. I’ve enjoyed that; I don’t know if you have. It’s a cool moment because the church has historically done that, regardless of denomination. There are some modern things, but Christian people are credal people. We are people who look to the Word of God, and men and women in history have built out systems around the Word of God to help us.

When the people of God have stood and quoted the Apostles’ Creed throughout Christian history, they’ve accomplished two things simultaneously. Here’s what they’ve done: When we stand and recite the Creed, we are rejecting popular narratives of the day. We are being fully rebellious while simultaneously pledging allegiance to the true narrative. So, when we recite the Creed, we are saying that we reject the narratives of our day regarding how life works, the meaning of life, and what will give us full life. When we stand and recite the Creed, we are saying, «I reject materialism; I reject the notion that more stuff will make me happy; I reject progressivism; I reject the idea that mankind is always getting better.» I fundamentally reject that. At the same time, while I’m rejecting that, I’m pledging allegiance to the Triune God of the Bible. I’m pledging allegiance to this three-in-one God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—three distinct persons, yet one God in the Godhead.

That’s what Christians have done since the beginning: we’ve rebelled against popular narratives and embraced the true narrative found in the Word of God. With that said, we’re going to read the Apostles’ Creed together. If you’re not a Christian and this feels a little odd to you, feel free to stay seated or just stand with us. We’re going to read this together.

As we’ve already covered, it’s important to note that the Creed starts with «I believe» and not «I know.» There are two ways to know things: you can know something in your mind, which is called understanding, and you can know it in your heart, which is called belief. The Bible calls us to both: an understanding of the mind and belief in the heart. So let’s read this together:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended to Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended to Heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come 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, and the life everlasting. Amen. Would you have a seat?

So, last week we started with the idea that there’s a difference between knowing in your head and knowing in your heart, that you can know things in your head and not act upon them.