December 1, 2025 • 34 mins
Listen to this week’s sermon, The Nicene Creed: We Believe (Advent) preached by Rev. Benjamin Kandt from Matthew 28:16-20.
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Rev. Benjamin Kandt (00:06):
Hello everyone, this is Pastor
Benjamin.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City Orlando.
At New City, we long to see ourfather answer the Lord's
Prayer.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at Newcity Orlando.com.
Advent series, which is aroundthe Nicene Creed.
Uh, but we we've also got asense of, and if you look at the
(00:28):
the slide for this series,you'll notice a few things.
One, you've got the churchpraying.
This is the Acts One picturewhere the Holy Spirit comes down
upon the church in that prayermeeting.
But the second thing you'llnotice is that the Nicene Creed
is in the background behindAdvent.
And so this series, like lastyear's series, really is
progressively building towardsthis culmination when we come
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together as one holy Catholicand Apostolic Church to pray and
praise the Triune God.
And so to that end, I'm goingto invite you to stand as we
pray together aloud this prayerof illumination and hear God's
word.
Join with me.
Promise Savior, as we rememberyour first advent and wait for
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your return.
Help us to see your glory andlove through the reading and
preaching of your word.
Through Christ our Savior, wepray.
Amen.
Our scripture reading thismorning comes from the gospel
according to Matthew chaptertwenty eight, starting in verse
sixteen.
Hear now the word of the Lord.
Now the eleven disciples wentto Galilee to the mountain to
(01:35):
which Jesus had directed them,and when they saw him, they
worshipped him, but somedoubted.
And Jesus came and said tothem, All authority in heaven
and on earth has been given tome.
Go therefore and make disciplesof all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, andof the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observeall that I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with youalways to the end of the age.
This is God's word.
Thanks be to God.
You may be seated.
In August of 2023, I wassitting at a cafe in Jerusalem
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having a conversation with myJewish guide about his faith.
And according to him, Judaismis less about believing the
right things and more aboutdoing the right things.
You see, you're a practicingJew if you eat kosher, honor
Shabbat, and go to synagogue.
And so asking him about hisfaith was actually a distinctly
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Christian way of framing thequestion.
It's not only modern Judaism,but I know some Roman Catholics
who will make this distinctionwill say, I'm a practicing
Catholic, right?
And not just like just anyCatholic, I'm a practicing
Catholic.
And I was listening to apodcast with, it was about Greek
mythology with the historianTom Holland, the historian, not
(03:00):
Spider-Man.
And in the podcast, he wasasked this question Did the
Greeks believe in their godslike Zeus?
To which Tom Holland replied,that's a Christian question.
In other words, they would havenever asked a question like
that.
You see, because for Greeks andRomans, their religion was
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about rituals and practices, notabout doctrines.
And yet, since Acts 5, 14 untiltoday, Christians describe
ourselves as believers.
There's something aboutChristianity that causes us to
ask the question about what doyou believe?
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You see, because the heart ofChristianity is faith, not
merely a mental ascent, but aconfidence in God.
That's the heart of theChristian religion.
And if we have a confidence inGod, we got to ask the question,
which God?
Who is this God?
What is this God like?
And our fathers in the faith,they fought for clarity to
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answer that question, and that'swhat we get in the Nicene
Creed.
We get a clear answer to thequestion of what is God like?
Who is this God that we believein?
And so the reason why we'respending the next five weeks in
the Nicene Creed is because 2025is the 1700-year anniversary of
Christians in all times andplaces using these words to give
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voice to our faith.
That's why we come up here andwe say, Christian, what do you
believe?
We believe in one God.
That's the way that our creedarticulates our faith.
And so this advent, we arereturning to the heart of
Christianity, that God isFather, Son, and Holy Spirit,
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and we're exploring this ancientpledge of allegiance together.
But here's something that youyou want to know about early
Christianity, and Christianityhonestly, for the last two
millennia, is that our prayerand our beliefs and our living
are in a symbiotic relationshipwith one another.
What you pray, what youbelieve, and how you live are
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all interrelated.
It's actually hard to teasethem out as if they're separate.
And so in the early church,there was this phrase that
became known as a way todescribe how the church
developed its beliefs aboutthings.
And so I'm gonna ask you torepeat this after me.
You ready?
Here we go.
Lexorandi, lex credendi, lexvivendi.
(05:42):
Some of y'all just came back tochurch for the first time.
You're like, they're castingspells in there.
The dude's been watchingStranger Things all weekend,
like it's getting weird.
Listen, that was Latin.
It's a Latin phrase that has agreat ancient pedigree in the
Christian church that simplymeans this is kind of my
translation, as we pray, so webelieve.
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And as we believe, so we live.
And those are our three pointsfor today.
As we pray, so we believe, aswe believe, so we live.
And so let's look at ourscripture and the Nicene Creed
together as we get a glimpseinto who this God is that we
pray to, believe in, and live inlight of.
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If you have a Bible or device,get Matthew 28 out in front of
you.
Look with me at Matthew 28,verse 16, and we're gonna see as
we pray.
Says this.
And when they saw Jesus, thisis key, they worshiped him.
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But some doubted.
You see, I want you to imaginefor a moment a line, okay?
Just a just a flat line likethis.
And God, the creator of allthings, is above the line, and
everything else, all ofcreation, is below the line.
It's really important.
This this creator-creaturedistinction is the fundamental
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binary of Scripture.
It begins in Genesis 1:1.
In the beginning, God created.
Okay?
God created.
All right, that's superimportant.
Because the people of God havealways been very careful not to
worship anything created as ifit belonged above the line and
worthy of worship.
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So where does Jesus belong?
Does he belong above the lineor below the line?
In the creator or the creationcategory?
Well, verse 17 says, when theysaw Jesus, they worshiped him.
You see, the disciples areworshiping this man, Jesus of
Nazareth, as if he belongs abovethe line where only God
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belongs.
This is either blasphemy of theworst kind or a revolution in
our understanding of who God is.
And so, Robert Lewis Wilken, anancient church historian, says
it like this as early as thebeginning of the second century,
outsiders, so this isnon-Christians, outsiders had
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observed that when Christiansgathered together, they sang
hymns to Christ as to a God.
They worshiped Jesus.
And because they worshipedJesus, they started thinking
about what that meant abouttheir view of who God is.
You see, this is what lexeronilex credendi means.
As we pray, so we believe.
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And so verse 17 says theyworshiped Jesus, but some
doubted.
You see, doubt about worshipingJesus is what led to the
Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.
In 318, a preacher fromAlexandria with a black hood and
a pale, sunken face, like aSith Lord, came walking into the
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room chanting, There once was atime when the sun was not.
I'm just kidding, that's nothow it worked because that's
rarely how false teaching comes.
False teaching looks more likepreachers and sneakers on your
Instagram reels.
Now and then.
In fact, his motivation fordenying that Jesus was God is to
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preserve a transcendent view ofGod.
That God is to be unoriginated,and so therefore, Jesus
couldn't possibly be God.
You see, Arius was attemptingto be devout, which is why he
could not extend worship thatonly is deserved by the one true
and living God to a man, Jesusof Nazareth.
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He couldn't go there.
And so listen, heresy workslike bacteria in our theological
immune system.
It's not until false teachingarises that the church develops
doctrinal antibodies to fight itoff.
And so notice within the firstfew hundred years, the Christian
church is having to work hardto articulate who is God.
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We got to tackle that one firstbecause it's the heart of our
faith.
And so this theological immunesystem fighting off the bacteria
of Arianism reached a feverpitch.
So much so that Constantine,the newly converted emperor of
Rome, called together a councilof over 200 church leaders from
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all around the Christian world.
And he made it in a city calledNicaea, which is in
northwestern Turkey because itwas more accessible by the sea.
And so leaders, 200 leaderscame from all across the
Mediterranean world, from thewest, places like Italy and
France and Spain, and from thenorth, it was Greece and Turkey,
and from the east, it wasregions like Syria and Lebanon,
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Armenia and Iran, and from thesouth, places like Egypt.
And these bishops, theseleaders, these church leaders
all came together, over 200 ofthem.
Why?
Because of their fiercedevotion to Jesus Christ.
You see, the Council of Nicaeagathered in 325, but in 303, an
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intense persecution came againstthe Christian church.
And so many of these pastorscame to the Council of Nicaea,
bearing in their very bodies themarks of persecution.
There's this story ofConstantine greeting one of the
bishops.
And when he walked up to him,this guy was from the Nile
Valley in Egypt.
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And in order to defend thefaith that he had in Jesus
Christ, the Roman Empire gougedout one of his eyes because he
wouldn't deny Christ.
And as the story goes,Constantine walks up and kisses
him on the empty eye socket as away of honoring this man for
his fierce devotion to JesusChrist.
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So you ask, why did theygather?
Why did Christians come fromall over the Mediterranean basin
to come to this council atNicaea?
Because they had a devotion, azealous love for Jesus Christ.
They suffered for the gospel.
They died for Jesus Christ.
And these are the remaining fewthat lived and endured the
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Diocletian persecution.
Of course, they're going togather to defend the faith once
for all, handed down to thechurch.
And so this is what we see asthey come together, they debate
and they disagree and they argueand they wrestle with words and
they come to hammer out what wecall the first edition of the
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Nicene Creed.
And this is the first creed toobtain universal authority in
the church, which means allChristians in all times, in all
places say, yes, that's what webelieve.
Let me just say that theinverse of that.
If you do not say yes to theNicene Creed, you are many
things, but Christian is not oneof them.
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That means that anybody whoprofesses the Nicene Creed is a
friend of mine, it's a friend ofyours.
We have a heart cry that thisis the true and living God.
And so as we pray, so webelieve.
Let's look together at what webelieve.
This is the Lex Credendi partof this.
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Look with me again at Matthew28.
Verse 18 says this, and Jesuscame and said to them, All
authority in heaven and on earthhas been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciplesof all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
You see, Jesus says with hisresurrection authority, he says
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to his disciples, as the churchspreads throughout the world,
immerse new disciples intoTrinitarian reality.
That's the translation of it.
And notice that the NiceneCreed is actually built around
the framework of Jesus'Trinitarian baptismal command in
the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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You'll see those threemovements in Matthew 28, 19
represented in the creed.
Why?
Because when we articulate ourfaith using the words of the
Nicene Creed, we are speakingforth our baptismal identity.
This is who God is, andtherefore this is who we are.
We are those who have beenimmersed into the name of the
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Father and the Son and the HolySpirit.
And so those three sections, Iwant to do just a quick flyover
because we're going to spendfive weeks, this is the first of
five, walking through thesesections, but I want to do a
quick flyover right now.
And so if you look on yourworship guide, you've got the
Nicene Creed printed there.
I want to read some of thistogether.
It says this, we believe in oneGod, the Father Almighty, maker
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of heaven and earth, of allthings visible and invisible.
If I were to tag this sermonwith a title, it would be We
Believe.
We believe.
You see, it's not we believethat, but rather we believe in.
Confessions are reallyimportant.
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We have a confession, theWestminster Confession of Faith,
which really tells us what webelieve.
Creeds are more about who webelieve in.
In that way, it's more of apledge of allegiance, if you
will.
And so this is significantbecause it's not necessarily
saying simply what do youbelieve, but in whom do you
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trust.
And so it goes on.
We believe in one God, theFather Almighty.
This is actually reallyimportant.
We call God Father before wecall him mighty or maker.
Why is that such a big deal?
Well, Adolf Hitler actually wasknown for he loved calling God
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the Almighty.
That was his favorite term fordescribing God.
And God is Almighty.
That's true.
It's just not the whole truth.
There's far more to say aboutGod than the fact that he's
simply Almighty.
And since Hitler was influencedby his Nietzschean philosophy,
Hitler wanted to be anubermensch and he needed an uber
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God who was all strength, alldomination, all force, and all
power.
And since we become like whatwe worship, you could see how
Hitler was shaped and formed byworshiping God the Almighty.
But our fathers in the faithwere so wise, and they knew it
was important to say, God theFather Almighty.
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Why?
Well, because God's maker mightis guided by the heart of a
father.
To call God Father implies thathe has a son as well.
In other words, God the Fatheris known by the fact that God
the Father generates the Son.
Inherent to the very identityof who God is, is not maker,
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otherwise, God would bedependent on his creation, but
father.
Because in the life of God, Godthe Father generates God the
Son.
So we turn from the Father tothe person and work of Jesus
Christ.
Look with me again at thecreed.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,the only begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father beforeall worlds, God of God, light of
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light, very God of very God,begotten not made, being of one
substance with the Father, bywhom all things were made.
You see, the authors of theNicene Creed were careful to
draw every single word from theBible.
Because they were Bible people.
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Like we are Bible people.
But there were a few words thatwere not drawn directly from
the Bible, and here's one ofthem.
Now I'm going to invite you tolean in for a moment, because I
know everybody in this room isnot a nerd like me, but I just,
this is important.
Nicaea contended for a wordhere, this word substance, which
in Greek is homoousia.
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The Arians contended for a wordvery similar, homoeousia.
Notice the similarity and thedifference.
It came down to is God, isJesus one and the same substance
with the Father?
Or is Jesus similar, justsimply similar in substance to
the Father?
It all came down to the symbol,the single Greek letter iota.
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Homo homoi.
And this was worth fightingover.
This was worth debating.
This was worth arguing.
You see, because this was theplace where the contested
territory was between the NiceneChristians and the Arians.
Now, I know this is familyworship Sunday, and so I lost
some of y'all.
Let me get you back togetherwith a fake story.
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Um, this is this is a legend, amedieval legend, uh, that says
that the debate got kind ofheated.
And so there was a fan favoritein the room named St.
Nicholas of Mira, who had alittle round belly like a bowl
full of jelly.
AKA Santa Claus.
And he had had enough, and sohe stepped up and slapped an
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Arian at the Council of Nicaeafor denying the deity of Christ.
Now, when I tell my kids, Imake sure that they know that
Santa Claus was a pastor.
That's really important.
They need to know that gives mesome cred as their dad,
alright?
And and so long before SantaClaus was handing out presents,
he was handing out smackdowns toArians for denying the deity of
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Jesus.
Some of the kids in the room,the main takeaway is gonna be
like, Santa Claus punched anArian.
Is that what he said?
Merry Christmas.
I don't really know where we gofrom here.
But but the significance ofthis is it was worth debating
and discussing and even dividingover one letter, the iota,
because it had everything to dowith who Jesus was.
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And so not only does theCouncil of Nicaea focus on the
person of Jesus Christ, but alsohis work.
Look at the count the creedwith me again.
It says this, who for us andfor our salvation came down from
heaven and was incarnate by theHoly Spirit of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man, and wascrucified also for us under
Pontius Pilate.
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He suffered and was buried, andthe third day he rose again
according to the scriptures, andascended into heaven, and is
seated at the right hand of theFather, and he shall come with
glory to judge both the livingand the dead, whose kingdom
shall have no end.
That language, for us and forour salvation, he came down.
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That's what we celebrate inAdvent.
He came down.
He didn't have to.
For us, for our salvation, hecame down.
That's the point of Advent.
And the point of Christmas isin these words right here, and
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was made man.
The incarnation.
That's what Christmascelebrates.
You see, Jesus Christ is thecenter of the creed and the
center of Christianity.
This is inherent, this is theheart of what we believe right
here.
Because the all-powerfulcreator of the universe entered
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our humanity and our history.
This is the gospel.
The Nicene Creed is the gospel.
This is the good news that weproclaim and that we believe and
that we live.
Listen, just notice theseverbs.
Jesus came down, was incarnate,became man, was crucified,
suffered death, was buried, roseagain, ascended, is seated, and
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will come again.
That is the good news that weproclaim.
And Jesus is this revelation ofwho God is, this unfolding of
the heart of God.
We cannot overestimate what theadvent of Jesus means to our
theology, our understanding ofGod.
One theologian put it likethis: through the sun, we see
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behind creation into the eternaland essential identity of God.
It is as if through Christ westep inside the front door of
God's home to see who he isbehind what he does.
More simply put, ArchbishopMichael Ramsey said, God is
Christ-like, and in him is nounchristlikeness at all.
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You see, not only the Fatherand the Lord Jesus, but also the
Spirit together are worshippedand glorified.
Look at the creed with meagain.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,the Lord and giver of life, who
proceeds from the Father and theSon, who with the Father and
the Son together is worshipedand glorified, who spoke by the
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prophets.
Christians would say that ittakes God to know God.
We call this regeneration.
You see, we need the HolySpirit, the Lord and giver of
life to make us alive to God.
We are born dead in ourtrespasses and sins.
We do not know God as God is,unless the Lord and giver of
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life comes.
One person said it like this: the Spirit's abiding interest is (23:45):
undefined
to bind us back to the Fatherthrough the Son.
I love that language.
What's the Spirit up to?
What's on the mind and heart ofthe Holy Spirit of God?
The abiding interest of theHoly Spirit is to bind us back
to the Father through the Son.
Always, the Lord and giver oflife is moving outward to do
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that.
And to this end, the Spirit,quote, spoke by the prophets.
That's the Bible.
That's why I'm not merelypreaching on the Nicene Creed,
I'm preaching on Matthew 28.
Because the text of Scriptureis inspired by the Holy Spirit.
It's unique.
You see, the Bible is not onlya witness to God's activity in
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the world, the Bible is a partof God's activity in the world.
God is, by the Spirit, spoke bythe prophets and is still
speaking by the prophets throughthe Word of God, through the
Bible.
And the Bible is a testimony, awitness to Jesus Christ.
Jesus says so himself in Luke24 that all of the law and the
prophets and the Psalms areabout me.
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You can't read the bookproperly unless you see Jesus in
it.
That's why the Spirit spoke bythe prophets.
And so the Father, the LordJesus, and the Holy Spirit,
Christianity is deeplyGod-centered.
It's not about any otherperipheral doctrines primarily,
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it's about God, who this God is.
So what?
You might be thinking that.
Some of y'all are like, dude,this was heady.
Okay, so what?
I was meeting with a guy whowas a not yet disciple of Jesus,
and in our conversations, itbecame clear that he grew up in
a spiritually abusiveenvironment.
And during our time, he wouldregularly cuss God out.
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He would talk about God in waysthat were, God was like a bully
on an ant hill with amagnifying glass, just like
burning ants, making his lifemiserable.
He would utter all theseblasphemies about God to the
point where I was superuncomfortable.
Sometimes I'd get angry,sometimes I'd be sorrowful, and
I didn't know what to do.
And so I talked to an esteemedmentor and I said, Hey, here's
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the situation.
I feel something welling up inme.
I want to defend God's honor inthese conversations, but I
don't think that's the right wayforward.
And do you know what my wise,venerable mentor said to me?
When I described how this guy'sblaspheming God, he said, Why
don't you join him?
I was struck by that.
What do you mean, join him?
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He's like, Well, you don'tbelieve in that God either.
The God he hates is not God.
And so now, actually, when I'mtalking to not yet disciples, I
asked him this question (26:29):
tell me about the God you believe in,
or tell me about the God youdon't believe in.
Because if it's not the God whois Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
eternally existing in aself-giving, others-oriented
love relationship of communalidentity and activity in the
world, I don't believe in thatGod either.
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And neither do you, Christian.
And so, what does this matter?
What difference does it make?
It makes all the difference inthe world.
If this is your God, if this isyour God, this Trinitarian God,
you see, we don't have todefend theism in general.
I don't care about defendingany God.
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I will die for this God.
The God articulated in theNicene Creed.
Because this is the God, thetrue and living God, the one
who's made known to us in JesusChrist.
This is what creedalChristianity is all about.
It's all about God.
Well, almost.
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You see, we didn't finish thecreed.
And my third point, as webelieve, so we live.
The creed ends like this.
We believe in one holy Catholicand apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism forthe remission of sins, and we
look for the resurrection of thedead and the life of the world
to come.
Amen.
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Let me pause here and just slowdown for a moment.
The church is an article offaith next to the Trinity.
What do we do with that?
Like, Christianity is not asolo sport.
Our fathers and mothers in thefaith believed that there is no
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salvation outside of the church.
Cyprian of Carthage, who diedin 258 AD, said, No one can have
God for his father who has notthe church for his mother.
If that's too, you know,ancient or Catholic for you,
this is what John Calvin said.
Beyond the pale of the church,there is no forgiveness of sin,
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and no salvation can be hopedfor.
Why do I say that?
Listen, I'm aware that thestrongest argument against
Christianity is Christians.
But one of the best argumentsfor Christianity is Christians.
I get it.
The church is, it can be hard,it can be hurtful, it can be
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hypocritical, but be a niceneChristian, not an American
individualist on this point,please.
A few years before his death,John Stott wrote this.
He said, An unchurchedChristian is a grotesque
anomaly.
Tell us what you really think,John.
He says the New Testament knowsnothing of such a person, for
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the church lies at the verycenter of the eternal purpose of
God.
It is not a divineafterthought.
Listen, we confess by faith,not by sight, because we don't
always see this to be true ofthe church.
But by faith we believe, weconfess that the church is
united, set apart by God for allpeoples, places, and times, and
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sent to carry the gospelforward.
Why is this such a big deal?
Why would you append this tothe creed about the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit?
Well, because if God's innerlife is triune, then the deepest
reality is communal.
You can't be a And so if thisGod, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, is this communal God whois an outgoing God who shares
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and gives and pours out, then weas worshipers of this God,
because remember what I saidearlier, we become like what we
worship.
As worshippers of this God, webecome a communal people who is
outgoing and overflowing andself-giving to others.
And this is why the first thingthe resurrected Lord Jesus
Christ did with all authority inthe heaven on earth is to tell
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his people, Go.
Go.
As the Father sent the Son, andthe Father and the Son sent the
Spirit, so the Spirit sends thechurch.
Go.
That's what the text says.
Look at Matthew 19.
Go, therefore, and makedisciples of all nations,
baptizing them into thisTrinitarian reality.
And Jesus promises as we'reabout that, he will be with us
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always to the very end of theage.
And so if Jesus' call is tomake disciples, I want to close
with three quick pictures of howthe Nicene Creed helps us make
disciples.
It's a map, it's a bumper, andit's a rope.
It's a map, it's a bumper, it'sa rope.
Here we go.
The Nicene Creed is a mapthat's important because it's
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not the terrain.
The happy land of the Trinityis the terrain.
But the Creed is like a mapthat charts this landscape of
who God is and what God does inthe world.
We need that if we're going tomake disciples.
Second, the Nicene Creed islike bumpers, like you know, the
bumper lanes at the bowlingalley.
We bowl a lot in Detroit whereI'm from.
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Maybe not so much here.
The Nicene Creed is like bumperlanes at a bowling alley for
how we read the Bible.
An RUF campus minister whoworks with college students said
it like this (31:48):
nobody simply inherits packages of belief
anymore.
We choose to believe and evenconstruct the packages for
ourselves, often as part of ourself-actualization project.
It's a choose your ownadventure, God, these days.
That's the spirituality of mostuniversities.
And in that, Christians say,hey, who has a better chance of
(32:10):
reading the Bible?
You alone with the book in yourroom or the church throughout
all times and places?
And so there's a there's ahumility that the creed invites
us to as we read the Bible.
We want to read the scriptureswith our big brothers and
sisters who have gone before us.
And so this became, this islike bowling alley bumpers.
(32:31):
You're you're you're not goingto veer off too far if you
maintain the truths of the creedas you read the scriptures.
Third and finally, the NiceneCreed is a rope.
I said a moment ago, I'm fromDetroit, and there's stories of
uh centuries ago in the Midwest,where farmers in the winter
(32:51):
would tie a rope from the backdoor of their house to the barn
door.
And the reason why is becausethey all had had stories of
friends or neighbors who hadgone out to their barn with a
clear sky and gotten trapped outthere because a blizzard burst
through and made it impossibleto navigate their way back to
their house and they die in thestorm.
(33:14):
So you tie a rope from yourhouse to the barn so that when
you get to the barn, you canfollow the rope back home again
and stay alive.
You see, this is what theNicene Creed is for us.
In an age of fake news,alternative facts, and following
the science, we need a lifelineto find our way back home.
(33:35):
Back home to the God man whopromised to be with us always to
the very end of the age as welook for the resurrection of the
dead and the life of the worldto come.
Amen.
Let's pray.
God, our Father Almighty, wepraise you.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, very Godof very God, we praise you.
(34:00):
Holy Spirit, Lord and giver oflife, we praise you.
Thank you, God, that you havemade us your own.
Thank you that our identity iswrapped up in your identity,
that who we are is that we areyours and you are ours.
So be it.
(34:21):
Holy Spirit, I pray that thetruths of the Nicene Creed and
the truths of Matthew 28 wouldbe impressed upon our hearts,
that we would receive all thatthere is for us from you, God,
in Jesus Christ.
It's his name we pray.
Amen.
Hello everyone, this is Pastor
Benjamin.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City Orlando.
At New City, we long to see ourfather answer the Lord's
Prayer.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at Newcity Orlando.com.
Advent series, which is aroundthe Nicene Creed.
Uh, but we we've also got asense of, and if you look at the
(00:28):
the slide for this series,you'll notice a few things.
One, you've got the churchpraying.
This is the Acts One picturewhere the Holy Spirit comes down
upon the church in that prayermeeting.
But the second thing you'llnotice is that the Nicene Creed
is in the background behindAdvent.
And so this series, like lastyear's series, really is
progressively building towardsthis culmination when we come
(00:50):
together as one holy Catholicand Apostolic Church to pray and
praise the Triune God.
And so to that end, I'm goingto invite you to stand as we
pray together aloud this prayerof illumination and hear God's
word.
Join with me.
Promise Savior, as we rememberyour first advent and wait for
(01:12):
your return.
Help us to see your glory andlove through the reading and
preaching of your word.
Through Christ our Savior, wepray.
Amen.
Our scripture reading thismorning comes from the gospel
according to Matthew chaptertwenty eight, starting in verse
sixteen.
Hear now the word of the Lord.
Now the eleven disciples wentto Galilee to the mountain to
(01:35):
which Jesus had directed them,and when they saw him, they
worshipped him, but somedoubted.
And Jesus came and said tothem, All authority in heaven
and on earth has been given tome.
Go therefore and make disciplesof all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, andof the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observeall that I have commanded you.
(01:59):
And behold, I am with youalways to the end of the age.
This is God's word.
Thanks be to God.
You may be seated.
In August of 2023, I wassitting at a cafe in Jerusalem
(02:19):
having a conversation with myJewish guide about his faith.
And according to him, Judaismis less about believing the
right things and more aboutdoing the right things.
You see, you're a practicingJew if you eat kosher, honor
Shabbat, and go to synagogue.
And so asking him about hisfaith was actually a distinctly
(02:39):
Christian way of framing thequestion.
It's not only modern Judaism,but I know some Roman Catholics
who will make this distinctionwill say, I'm a practicing
Catholic, right?
And not just like just anyCatholic, I'm a practicing
Catholic.
And I was listening to apodcast with, it was about Greek
mythology with the historianTom Holland, the historian, not
(03:00):
Spider-Man.
And in the podcast, he wasasked this question Did the
Greeks believe in their godslike Zeus?
To which Tom Holland replied,that's a Christian question.
In other words, they would havenever asked a question like
that.
You see, because for Greeks andRomans, their religion was
(03:23):
about rituals and practices, notabout doctrines.
And yet, since Acts 5, 14 untiltoday, Christians describe
ourselves as believers.
There's something aboutChristianity that causes us to
ask the question about what doyou believe?
(03:45):
You see, because the heart ofChristianity is faith, not
merely a mental ascent, but aconfidence in God.
That's the heart of theChristian religion.
And if we have a confidence inGod, we got to ask the question,
which God?
Who is this God?
What is this God like?
And our fathers in the faith,they fought for clarity to
(04:10):
answer that question, and that'swhat we get in the Nicene
Creed.
We get a clear answer to thequestion of what is God like?
Who is this God that we believein?
And so the reason why we'respending the next five weeks in
the Nicene Creed is because 2025is the 1700-year anniversary of
Christians in all times andplaces using these words to give
(04:35):
voice to our faith.
That's why we come up here andwe say, Christian, what do you
believe?
We believe in one God.
That's the way that our creedarticulates our faith.
And so this advent, we arereturning to the heart of
Christianity, that God isFather, Son, and Holy Spirit,
(04:57):
and we're exploring this ancientpledge of allegiance together.
But here's something that youyou want to know about early
Christianity, and Christianityhonestly, for the last two
millennia, is that our prayerand our beliefs and our living
are in a symbiotic relationshipwith one another.
What you pray, what youbelieve, and how you live are
(05:19):
all interrelated.
It's actually hard to teasethem out as if they're separate.
And so in the early church,there was this phrase that
became known as a way todescribe how the church
developed its beliefs aboutthings.
And so I'm gonna ask you torepeat this after me.
You ready?
Here we go.
Lexorandi, lex credendi, lexvivendi.
(05:42):
Some of y'all just came back tochurch for the first time.
You're like, they're castingspells in there.
The dude's been watchingStranger Things all weekend,
like it's getting weird.
Listen, that was Latin.
It's a Latin phrase that has agreat ancient pedigree in the
Christian church that simplymeans this is kind of my
translation, as we pray, so webelieve.
(06:05):
And as we believe, so we live.
And those are our three pointsfor today.
As we pray, so we believe, aswe believe, so we live.
And so let's look at ourscripture and the Nicene Creed
together as we get a glimpseinto who this God is that we
pray to, believe in, and live inlight of.
(06:26):
If you have a Bible or device,get Matthew 28 out in front of
you.
Look with me at Matthew 28,verse 16, and we're gonna see as
we pray.
Says this.
And when they saw Jesus, thisis key, they worshiped him.
(06:49):
But some doubted.
You see, I want you to imaginefor a moment a line, okay?
Just a just a flat line likethis.
And God, the creator of allthings, is above the line, and
everything else, all ofcreation, is below the line.
It's really important.
This this creator-creaturedistinction is the fundamental
(07:11):
binary of Scripture.
It begins in Genesis 1:1.
In the beginning, God created.
Okay?
God created.
All right, that's superimportant.
Because the people of God havealways been very careful not to
worship anything created as ifit belonged above the line and
worthy of worship.
(07:32):
So where does Jesus belong?
Does he belong above the lineor below the line?
In the creator or the creationcategory?
Well, verse 17 says, when theysaw Jesus, they worshiped him.
You see, the disciples areworshiping this man, Jesus of
Nazareth, as if he belongs abovethe line where only God
(07:55):
belongs.
This is either blasphemy of theworst kind or a revolution in
our understanding of who God is.
And so, Robert Lewis Wilken, anancient church historian, says
it like this as early as thebeginning of the second century,
outsiders, so this isnon-Christians, outsiders had
(08:16):
observed that when Christiansgathered together, they sang
hymns to Christ as to a God.
They worshiped Jesus.
And because they worshipedJesus, they started thinking
about what that meant abouttheir view of who God is.
You see, this is what lexeronilex credendi means.
As we pray, so we believe.
(08:37):
And so verse 17 says theyworshiped Jesus, but some
doubted.
You see, doubt about worshipingJesus is what led to the
Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.
In 318, a preacher fromAlexandria with a black hood and
a pale, sunken face, like aSith Lord, came walking into the
(09:01):
room chanting, There once was atime when the sun was not.
I'm just kidding, that's nothow it worked because that's
rarely how false teaching comes.
False teaching looks more likepreachers and sneakers on your
Instagram reels.
Now and then.
In fact, his motivation fordenying that Jesus was God is to
(09:53):
preserve a transcendent view ofGod.
That God is to be unoriginated,and so therefore, Jesus
couldn't possibly be God.
You see, Arius was attemptingto be devout, which is why he
could not extend worship thatonly is deserved by the one true
and living God to a man, Jesusof Nazareth.
(10:13):
He couldn't go there.
And so listen, heresy workslike bacteria in our theological
immune system.
It's not until false teachingarises that the church develops
doctrinal antibodies to fight itoff.
And so notice within the firstfew hundred years, the Christian
church is having to work hardto articulate who is God.
(10:35):
We got to tackle that one firstbecause it's the heart of our
faith.
And so this theological immunesystem fighting off the bacteria
of Arianism reached a feverpitch.
So much so that Constantine,the newly converted emperor of
Rome, called together a councilof over 200 church leaders from
(10:59):
all around the Christian world.
And he made it in a city calledNicaea, which is in
northwestern Turkey because itwas more accessible by the sea.
And so leaders, 200 leaderscame from all across the
Mediterranean world, from thewest, places like Italy and
France and Spain, and from thenorth, it was Greece and Turkey,
and from the east, it wasregions like Syria and Lebanon,
(11:21):
Armenia and Iran, and from thesouth, places like Egypt.
And these bishops, theseleaders, these church leaders
all came together, over 200 ofthem.
Why?
Because of their fiercedevotion to Jesus Christ.
You see, the Council of Nicaeagathered in 325, but in 303, an
(11:45):
intense persecution came againstthe Christian church.
And so many of these pastorscame to the Council of Nicaea,
bearing in their very bodies themarks of persecution.
There's this story ofConstantine greeting one of the
bishops.
And when he walked up to him,this guy was from the Nile
Valley in Egypt.
(12:06):
And in order to defend thefaith that he had in Jesus
Christ, the Roman Empire gougedout one of his eyes because he
wouldn't deny Christ.
And as the story goes,Constantine walks up and kisses
him on the empty eye socket as away of honoring this man for
his fierce devotion to JesusChrist.
(12:28):
So you ask, why did theygather?
Why did Christians come fromall over the Mediterranean basin
to come to this council atNicaea?
Because they had a devotion, azealous love for Jesus Christ.
They suffered for the gospel.
They died for Jesus Christ.
And these are the remaining fewthat lived and endured the
(12:49):
Diocletian persecution.
Of course, they're going togather to defend the faith once
for all, handed down to thechurch.
And so this is what we see asthey come together, they debate
and they disagree and they argueand they wrestle with words and
they come to hammer out what wecall the first edition of the
(13:10):
Nicene Creed.
And this is the first creed toobtain universal authority in
the church, which means allChristians in all times, in all
places say, yes, that's what webelieve.
Let me just say that theinverse of that.
If you do not say yes to theNicene Creed, you are many
things, but Christian is not oneof them.
(13:31):
That means that anybody whoprofesses the Nicene Creed is a
friend of mine, it's a friend ofyours.
We have a heart cry that thisis the true and living God.
And so as we pray, so webelieve.
Let's look together at what webelieve.
This is the Lex Credendi partof this.
(13:52):
Look with me again at Matthew28.
Verse 18 says this, and Jesuscame and said to them, All
authority in heaven and on earthhas been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciplesof all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
You see, Jesus says with hisresurrection authority, he says
(14:15):
to his disciples, as the churchspreads throughout the world,
immerse new disciples intoTrinitarian reality.
That's the translation of it.
And notice that the NiceneCreed is actually built around
the framework of Jesus'Trinitarian baptismal command in
the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
(14:36):
You'll see those threemovements in Matthew 28, 19
represented in the creed.
Why?
Because when we articulate ourfaith using the words of the
Nicene Creed, we are speakingforth our baptismal identity.
This is who God is, andtherefore this is who we are.
We are those who have beenimmersed into the name of the
(14:57):
Father and the Son and the HolySpirit.
And so those three sections, Iwant to do just a quick flyover
because we're going to spendfive weeks, this is the first of
five, walking through thesesections, but I want to do a
quick flyover right now.
And so if you look on yourworship guide, you've got the
Nicene Creed printed there.
I want to read some of thistogether.
It says this, we believe in oneGod, the Father Almighty, maker
(15:19):
of heaven and earth, of allthings visible and invisible.
If I were to tag this sermonwith a title, it would be We
Believe.
We believe.
You see, it's not we believethat, but rather we believe in.
Confessions are reallyimportant.
(15:39):
We have a confession, theWestminster Confession of Faith,
which really tells us what webelieve.
Creeds are more about who webelieve in.
In that way, it's more of apledge of allegiance, if you
will.
And so this is significantbecause it's not necessarily
saying simply what do youbelieve, but in whom do you
(16:00):
trust.
And so it goes on.
We believe in one God, theFather Almighty.
This is actually reallyimportant.
We call God Father before wecall him mighty or maker.
Why is that such a big deal?
Well, Adolf Hitler actually wasknown for he loved calling God
(16:23):
the Almighty.
That was his favorite term fordescribing God.
And God is Almighty.
That's true.
It's just not the whole truth.
There's far more to say aboutGod than the fact that he's
simply Almighty.
And since Hitler was influencedby his Nietzschean philosophy,
Hitler wanted to be anubermensch and he needed an uber
(16:43):
God who was all strength, alldomination, all force, and all
power.
And since we become like whatwe worship, you could see how
Hitler was shaped and formed byworshiping God the Almighty.
But our fathers in the faithwere so wise, and they knew it
was important to say, God theFather Almighty.
(17:06):
Why?
Well, because God's maker mightis guided by the heart of a
father.
To call God Father implies thathe has a son as well.
In other words, God the Fatheris known by the fact that God
the Father generates the Son.
Inherent to the very identityof who God is, is not maker,
(17:29):
otherwise, God would bedependent on his creation, but
father.
Because in the life of God, Godthe Father generates God the
Son.
So we turn from the Father tothe person and work of Jesus
Christ.
Look with me again at thecreed.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,the only begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father beforeall worlds, God of God, light of
(17:52):
light, very God of very God,begotten not made, being of one
substance with the Father, bywhom all things were made.
You see, the authors of theNicene Creed were careful to
draw every single word from theBible.
Because they were Bible people.
(18:12):
Like we are Bible people.
But there were a few words thatwere not drawn directly from
the Bible, and here's one ofthem.
Now I'm going to invite you tolean in for a moment, because I
know everybody in this room isnot a nerd like me, but I just,
this is important.
Nicaea contended for a wordhere, this word substance, which
in Greek is homoousia.
(18:32):
The Arians contended for a wordvery similar, homoeousia.
Notice the similarity and thedifference.
It came down to is God, isJesus one and the same substance
with the Father?
Or is Jesus similar, justsimply similar in substance to
the Father?
It all came down to the symbol,the single Greek letter iota.
(18:58):
Homo homoi.
And this was worth fightingover.
This was worth debating.
This was worth arguing.
You see, because this was theplace where the contested
territory was between the NiceneChristians and the Arians.
Now, I know this is familyworship Sunday, and so I lost
some of y'all.
Let me get you back togetherwith a fake story.
(19:19):
Um, this is this is a legend, amedieval legend, uh, that says
that the debate got kind ofheated.
And so there was a fan favoritein the room named St.
Nicholas of Mira, who had alittle round belly like a bowl
full of jelly.
AKA Santa Claus.
And he had had enough, and sohe stepped up and slapped an
(19:40):
Arian at the Council of Nicaeafor denying the deity of Christ.
Now, when I tell my kids, Imake sure that they know that
Santa Claus was a pastor.
That's really important.
They need to know that gives mesome cred as their dad,
alright?
And and so long before SantaClaus was handing out presents,
he was handing out smackdowns toArians for denying the deity of
(20:00):
Jesus.
Some of the kids in the room,the main takeaway is gonna be
like, Santa Claus punched anArian.
Is that what he said?
Merry Christmas.
I don't really know where we gofrom here.
But but the significance ofthis is it was worth debating
and discussing and even dividingover one letter, the iota,
because it had everything to dowith who Jesus was.
(20:22):
And so not only does theCouncil of Nicaea focus on the
person of Jesus Christ, but alsohis work.
Look at the count the creedwith me again.
It says this, who for us andfor our salvation came down from
heaven and was incarnate by theHoly Spirit of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man, and wascrucified also for us under
Pontius Pilate.
(20:43):
He suffered and was buried, andthe third day he rose again
according to the scriptures, andascended into heaven, and is
seated at the right hand of theFather, and he shall come with
glory to judge both the livingand the dead, whose kingdom
shall have no end.
That language, for us and forour salvation, he came down.
(21:07):
That's what we celebrate inAdvent.
He came down.
He didn't have to.
For us, for our salvation, hecame down.
That's the point of Advent.
And the point of Christmas isin these words right here, and
(21:30):
was made man.
The incarnation.
That's what Christmascelebrates.
You see, Jesus Christ is thecenter of the creed and the
center of Christianity.
This is inherent, this is theheart of what we believe right
here.
Because the all-powerfulcreator of the universe entered
(21:52):
our humanity and our history.
This is the gospel.
The Nicene Creed is the gospel.
This is the good news that weproclaim and that we believe and
that we live.
Listen, just notice theseverbs.
Jesus came down, was incarnate,became man, was crucified,
suffered death, was buried, roseagain, ascended, is seated, and
(22:13):
will come again.
That is the good news that weproclaim.
And Jesus is this revelation ofwho God is, this unfolding of
the heart of God.
We cannot overestimate what theadvent of Jesus means to our
theology, our understanding ofGod.
One theologian put it likethis: through the sun, we see
(22:35):
behind creation into the eternaland essential identity of God.
It is as if through Christ westep inside the front door of
God's home to see who he isbehind what he does.
More simply put, ArchbishopMichael Ramsey said, God is
Christ-like, and in him is nounchristlikeness at all.
(22:58):
You see, not only the Fatherand the Lord Jesus, but also the
Spirit together are worshippedand glorified.
Look at the creed with meagain.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,the Lord and giver of life, who
proceeds from the Father and theSon, who with the Father and
the Son together is worshipedand glorified, who spoke by the
(23:23):
prophets.
Christians would say that ittakes God to know God.
We call this regeneration.
You see, we need the HolySpirit, the Lord and giver of
life to make us alive to God.
We are born dead in ourtrespasses and sins.
We do not know God as God is,unless the Lord and giver of
(23:44):
life comes.
One person said it like this: the Spirit's abiding interest is (23:45):
undefined
to bind us back to the Fatherthrough the Son.
I love that language.
What's the Spirit up to?
What's on the mind and heart ofthe Holy Spirit of God?
The abiding interest of theHoly Spirit is to bind us back
to the Father through the Son.
Always, the Lord and giver oflife is moving outward to do
(24:07):
that.
And to this end, the Spirit,quote, spoke by the prophets.
That's the Bible.
That's why I'm not merelypreaching on the Nicene Creed,
I'm preaching on Matthew 28.
Because the text of Scriptureis inspired by the Holy Spirit.
It's unique.
You see, the Bible is not onlya witness to God's activity in
(24:28):
the world, the Bible is a partof God's activity in the world.
God is, by the Spirit, spoke bythe prophets and is still
speaking by the prophets throughthe Word of God, through the
Bible.
And the Bible is a testimony, awitness to Jesus Christ.
Jesus says so himself in Luke24 that all of the law and the
prophets and the Psalms areabout me.
(24:50):
You can't read the bookproperly unless you see Jesus in
it.
That's why the Spirit spoke bythe prophets.
And so the Father, the LordJesus, and the Holy Spirit,
Christianity is deeplyGod-centered.
It's not about any otherperipheral doctrines primarily,
(25:10):
it's about God, who this God is.
So what?
You might be thinking that.
Some of y'all are like, dude,this was heady.
Okay, so what?
I was meeting with a guy whowas a not yet disciple of Jesus,
and in our conversations, itbecame clear that he grew up in
a spiritually abusiveenvironment.
And during our time, he wouldregularly cuss God out.
(25:34):
He would talk about God in waysthat were, God was like a bully
on an ant hill with amagnifying glass, just like
burning ants, making his lifemiserable.
He would utter all theseblasphemies about God to the
point where I was superuncomfortable.
Sometimes I'd get angry,sometimes I'd be sorrowful, and
I didn't know what to do.
And so I talked to an esteemedmentor and I said, Hey, here's
(25:58):
the situation.
I feel something welling up inme.
I want to defend God's honor inthese conversations, but I
don't think that's the right wayforward.
And do you know what my wise,venerable mentor said to me?
When I described how this guy'sblaspheming God, he said, Why
don't you join him?
I was struck by that.
What do you mean, join him?
(26:19):
He's like, Well, you don'tbelieve in that God either.
The God he hates is not God.
And so now, actually, when I'mtalking to not yet disciples, I
asked him this question (26:29):
tell me about the God you believe in,
or tell me about the God youdon't believe in.
Because if it's not the God whois Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
eternally existing in aself-giving, others-oriented
love relationship of communalidentity and activity in the
world, I don't believe in thatGod either.
(26:51):
And neither do you, Christian.
And so, what does this matter?
What difference does it make?
It makes all the difference inthe world.
If this is your God, if this isyour God, this Trinitarian God,
you see, we don't have todefend theism in general.
I don't care about defendingany God.
(27:13):
I will die for this God.
The God articulated in theNicene Creed.
Because this is the God, thetrue and living God, the one
who's made known to us in JesusChrist.
This is what creedalChristianity is all about.
It's all about God.
Well, almost.
(27:34):
You see, we didn't finish thecreed.
And my third point, as webelieve, so we live.
The creed ends like this.
We believe in one holy Catholicand apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism forthe remission of sins, and we
look for the resurrection of thedead and the life of the world
to come.
Amen.
(27:55):
Let me pause here and just slowdown for a moment.
The church is an article offaith next to the Trinity.
What do we do with that?
Like, Christianity is not asolo sport.
Our fathers and mothers in thefaith believed that there is no
(28:16):
salvation outside of the church.
Cyprian of Carthage, who diedin 258 AD, said, No one can have
God for his father who has notthe church for his mother.
If that's too, you know,ancient or Catholic for you,
this is what John Calvin said.
Beyond the pale of the church,there is no forgiveness of sin,
(28:38):
and no salvation can be hopedfor.
Why do I say that?
Listen, I'm aware that thestrongest argument against
Christianity is Christians.
But one of the best argumentsfor Christianity is Christians.
I get it.
The church is, it can be hard,it can be hurtful, it can be
(28:59):
hypocritical, but be a niceneChristian, not an American
individualist on this point,please.
A few years before his death,John Stott wrote this.
He said, An unchurchedChristian is a grotesque
anomaly.
Tell us what you really think,John.
He says the New Testament knowsnothing of such a person, for
(29:22):
the church lies at the verycenter of the eternal purpose of
God.
It is not a divineafterthought.
Listen, we confess by faith,not by sight, because we don't
always see this to be true ofthe church.
But by faith we believe, weconfess that the church is
united, set apart by God for allpeoples, places, and times, and
(29:44):
sent to carry the gospelforward.
Why is this such a big deal?
Why would you append this tothe creed about the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit?
Well, because if God's innerlife is triune, then the deepest
reality is communal.
You can't be a And so if thisGod, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, is this communal God whois an outgoing God who shares
(30:09):
and gives and pours out, then weas worshipers of this God,
because remember what I saidearlier, we become like what we
worship.
As worshippers of this God, webecome a communal people who is
outgoing and overflowing andself-giving to others.
And this is why the first thingthe resurrected Lord Jesus
Christ did with all authority inthe heaven on earth is to tell
(30:31):
his people, Go.
Go.
As the Father sent the Son, andthe Father and the Son sent the
Spirit, so the Spirit sends thechurch.
Go.
That's what the text says.
Look at Matthew 19.
Go, therefore, and makedisciples of all nations,
baptizing them into thisTrinitarian reality.
And Jesus promises as we'reabout that, he will be with us
(30:54):
always to the very end of theage.
And so if Jesus' call is tomake disciples, I want to close
with three quick pictures of howthe Nicene Creed helps us make
disciples.
It's a map, it's a bumper, andit's a rope.
It's a map, it's a bumper, it'sa rope.
Here we go.
The Nicene Creed is a mapthat's important because it's
(31:17):
not the terrain.
The happy land of the Trinityis the terrain.
But the Creed is like a mapthat charts this landscape of
who God is and what God does inthe world.
We need that if we're going tomake disciples.
Second, the Nicene Creed islike bumpers, like you know, the
bumper lanes at the bowlingalley.
We bowl a lot in Detroit whereI'm from.
(31:39):
Maybe not so much here.
The Nicene Creed is like bumperlanes at a bowling alley for
how we read the Bible.
An RUF campus minister whoworks with college students said
it like this (31:48):
nobody simply inherits packages of belief
anymore.
We choose to believe and evenconstruct the packages for
ourselves, often as part of ourself-actualization project.
It's a choose your ownadventure, God, these days.
That's the spirituality of mostuniversities.
And in that, Christians say,hey, who has a better chance of
(32:10):
reading the Bible?
You alone with the book in yourroom or the church throughout
all times and places?
And so there's a there's ahumility that the creed invites
us to as we read the Bible.
We want to read the scriptureswith our big brothers and
sisters who have gone before us.
And so this became, this islike bowling alley bumpers.
(32:31):
You're you're you're not goingto veer off too far if you
maintain the truths of the creedas you read the scriptures.
Third and finally, the NiceneCreed is a rope.
I said a moment ago, I'm fromDetroit, and there's stories of
uh centuries ago in the Midwest,where farmers in the winter
(32:51):
would tie a rope from the backdoor of their house to the barn
door.
And the reason why is becausethey all had had stories of
friends or neighbors who hadgone out to their barn with a
clear sky and gotten trapped outthere because a blizzard burst
through and made it impossibleto navigate their way back to
their house and they die in thestorm.
(33:14):
So you tie a rope from yourhouse to the barn so that when
you get to the barn, you canfollow the rope back home again
and stay alive.
You see, this is what theNicene Creed is for us.
In an age of fake news,alternative facts, and following
the science, we need a lifelineto find our way back home.
(33:35):
Back home to the God man whopromised to be with us always to
the very end of the age as welook for the resurrection of the
dead and the life of the worldto come.
Amen.
Let's pray.
God, our Father Almighty, wepraise you.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, very Godof very God, we praise you.
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Holy Spirit, Lord and giver oflife, we praise you.
Thank you, God, that you havemade us your own.
Thank you that our identity iswrapped up in your identity,
that who we are is that we areyours and you are ours.
So be it.
(34:21):
Holy Spirit, I pray that thetruths of the Nicene Creed and
the truths of Matthew 28 wouldbe impressed upon our hearts,
that we would receive all thatthere is for us from you, God,
in Jesus Christ.
It's his name we pray.
Amen.