Matt Chandler - God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth

Hey, how are we doing? Well, alright. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab them. Matthew chapter six is where we’re going to camp out; we’ll be in verses 9 through 13. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be a hardback black one somewhere around you. If you don’t own one, that’s our gift to you. As I like to say, if you want a nicer one, you can visit the lost and found; there are beautiful Bibles in there. Feel free to take one of those, especially if it has your name on it.

So, we’re in week two of a series on the Apostles' Creed, and as I said last week, we needed to cover a couple of things about the Apostles' Creed before we really dive into it. So, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 6. We’re going to hang out in Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 through 13. But before we get there, the Apostles' Creed is one of the oldest of the Christian creeds, and in fact, it’s been used for well over a thousand years by Christians globally for two means: it’s been used to correct error and it’s also been used as a piece of a spiritual formation plan for the people of God. So, it has been used to correct error and to form the people of God, and that’s the role of the Creed.

Now, it’s very important for you to know that this fall, I am NOT preaching the Apostles' Creed, but rather preaching the Bible. Alright? The creeds have no authority unto themselves except the authority that they derive from the Word of God. Creeds point outside of themselves to the ultimate authority, which is the Word of God. So, the way to think about the relationship between the creeds and the Bible is to maybe compare it to the relationship between the Sun and the Moon. The Sun has all the light and all the heat; the Moon, where it appears to have light and seems to have heat, is borrowing that or taking it from the Sun.

So, last night, if you looked up and saw the full Moon, the Moon is not glowing, right? It’s taking the light of the Sun and reflecting it to us here on Earth. The creeds reflect, but they have no light or heat of their own. So, we’re going to preach the Bible this fall, but we’re going to use the Apostles' Creed as a jumping-off point. We said last week that the reason we want to do that is because by getting into a creed, it’ll help with symmetry and shape us as more fully formed followers of Jesus Christ.

We said that it would provide some clarity; there are some false assumptions and thinking about the Godhead that we need to correct, and the Creed will help us do that. We talked about understanding the community of the saints more fully, and the Creed will help us with that. Finally, how we counsel ourselves and others will be directly affected by our understanding of the Word of God as the Creed presents it.

So, that’s why we’re going to spend 12 weeks on it—at this point 11 weeks, since we’ve already completed one. That’s the Apostles' Creed, why we’re in it. One more thing: if you’re not a Christian or don’t quite get what’s going on here, I’ll just say this: Christians do not believe in incantations. What I mean by that is, saying the Apostles’ Creed out loud does not make you a Christian; it will not make you lucky, will not forgive your sins, and will not help you get that promotion at work or land that young woman or young man you’re eyeing right now. Okay? That’s not how this works.

I pointed out last week that the Apostles’ Creed begins with the very significant two words, «I believe, ” not „I know.“ I said the reason that’s so important is because there are two ways for you to know truth: you can know it in your mind, which is called understanding, or you can know it in your heart, which is called believing.

The best way for you to understand this is that you can know things in your mind, and those have no effect on how you live your life, right? I mean, there’s a long list of stuff you know you should be doing and don’t, correct? I’m not making this up; there’s a whole long list of things that you know you should do or not do, and that makes no difference in whether or not you do them.

Belief is different in that belief drives the actions of our life. Knowing in your head is not the same thing as believing in your heart. The Christian, according to the Word of God, is called to do both. But the Creed says, „I believe.“ I believe in my heart; I don’t just know in my head. I believe in my heart, and that’s what drives us as the people of God.

Now, when the Creed has been read historically, it is simultaneously the greatest act of rebellion and the greatest act of allegiance happening at once. Here’s what I mean: when people stand and publicly recite the Creed, they are, in one sense, rebelling against the predominant narratives or stories of their day and pledging allegiance to the God of the Bible. So, if I could plug it into 2023 for us, to stand and believe this—not just know it, but to say it like we believe it—is to fundamentally reject the narrative of materialism that what we need to be happy and full.