THE CREED: IN JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD, OUR LORD

Thanks so much for joining us this morning for worship. If you’re new with us my name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors here at Cornerstone Church in Auburn, IL. SERIES: And two weeks ago we started a new teaching series called THE CREED: WHAT WE BELIEVE. We talked about how important belief is. What we believe effects our behavior. Trusting something and then taking action. For example, if you read an article on social media and it reinforces what you believe, then you tend to take the action of liking it or sharing it. If you don’t believe what someone has posted you may choose to block them, unfriend them, or make a snarky comment about it. I believe this thing, therefore I behave a certain way. And the reason we chose this particular teaching series is because we believe that…[2]

WHAT YOU BELIEVE ABOUT GOD IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT YOU! A pastor named AW Tozer said that. That’s a pretty strong statement. It basically says what you believe about who’s better: the cardinals or the cubs, whose doing a worse job: republicans or democrats, what are the best restaurants: Chipotle and Chic-fil-et are or any other wrong answer you can give: all of these things are of secondary, or third or 1 million^th importance. What you believe to be true about God will change everything else about the way you live and who you become. For example, last week we talked about how…[3]

• GOD IS A FATHER, AND HE IS ALMIGHTY: I love how another Pastor named Matt Chandler put it. The God that Christians believe in is both INTENSELY PERSONAL and INFINITELY POWERFUL. The God that Christians believe in is completely different than any other picture of God. He is not some far away God that set things into motion and stepped away and left us on our own. He is not some impersonal force like in Avatar. He’s not in a tree, or in a rock or a lizard. He’s relational and loving. He has a will and desires. He has plans and purposes for us. And He is intensely personal. He wants to be in relationship with us. He loves us. He likes us. He desires us. You’re not some cosmic accident that crawled out of a primordial goo, but a masterpiece carefully crafted by an artist. The bible tells us that if we accept Jesus, that we get to be part of God’s family and call him Daddy and run and jump into his arms. He is INTENSELY PERSONAL… But he is also INFINATELY POWERFUL. That our God is OMNIPOTENT All Powerful. He speaks and the universe jumps into being. His words create gravity, nuclear fusion, quantum physics. All with a breath. There is no other power above him. He’s OMNISCIENT: All knowing. There is no mysteries to him, no secrets from him. He sees all and knows all. He is the creator of wisdom, logic, rational. The seasons, the bodily human systems, the rotations of our solar system, all work as if they were designed by someone who knew what they were doing. He strung 3 billion bits of information into every cell of your 37.2 trillion cells to make you who you are. Talk about wisdom. And he made a plan from before creation to guide all of human history to where it is intended to be. No virus is gonna mess up his plan. When you put these two major ideas of who God is, Intensely Personal, and Infinitely Powerful you get what J.I. Packer calls…[4]

WHOLLY LOVING & LOVING HOLINESS: God is wholly love and wants to be close to us, to be our Father and he will do everything possible to make that happen. He forgives, he accepts, he cleanses and heals. Grace over and over again. But he is also loving holiness. He decides what is good and true and light. And he loves us enough to give us a choice in whether we will choose him and life and joy, or experience his judgement, discipline [5]And if we believe that about God, it changes how we behave. We love him because he loved us. We use everything we have, heart, mind, soul, and strength to show him how much we love him And we also respect him by repenting when we live like we’re God. We obey his commands even if we don’t like them because we know it leads to our good and his glory. If you want to know what a Christian believes about God, look at their behavior. Does that sound like us? I truly hope so. But to truly know God the Father, we must get to know God the Son, or as the Creed says it… [6]JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD. None of us have ever seen God and for us to truly know someone, we need to be able to examine what they are like up close. So God gave us Jesus, that we might know him better and come to know God better as well. Jesus was also intensely personal and infinitely powerful. And when we believe correctly who Jesus is, it will change everything. How we react to this broken world, how we live in the middle of uncertainty. It will change fear to hope, hate to love, brokenness to healing. So let’s read the Creed again together out loud. If you’re exploring Christianity, it’s okay if you don’t say this out loud. Instead take time to consider what it might mean if it was true.

CREED SHOULD LEAD US BACK TO THE BIBLE THEN BACK TO JESUS: The creed is a summary of truths from the Bible is only powerful because it pulls from the Bible. So, we are using the creed to teach Scripture. And the point of reading our bibles is to see and run towards Jesus. So let’s read [16-18][Matt 16:13-16] Jesus is asking his closest disciples, what’s the news got to say about who I am? What are people saying? And they answer they say you’re a reincarnated prophet, or you’re a teacher. And the point is that everyone is missing the point. He’s not some spiritual superstition like reincarnation. He’s not simply a good teacher, or a compelling historical figure. Then he says, what about you? Do you know who I really am? And Peter gives us 2 main titles that explain who Jesus really is. THE CHRIST & THE SON OF GOD. When Peter calls Jesus THE CHRIST, HE’S ESSENTIALLY SAYING…[19]

• THE KING OVER ALL: In the first half of our bibles, what we call the Old Testament we read 29x’s that when someone becomes a King, they have oil poured over their heads. This is called anointing. They become the Anointed One. And God had promised them over and over again that one day he would send an anointed King to rule forever. That he would set up his kingdom forever and there would be peace and wholeness and joy unending. One particular promise is in [20-23][2 Samuel 7:11-14], God says through one of his spokesmen to the King named David this. ¹² For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. ¹³ He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. ¹⁴ I will be his father, and he will be my son. [24]There will be a king that reigns forever and is called God’s Son. Peter is saying, Jesus is that King. But where he is saying it, makes this phrase that much more powerful.
  • Jesus and his apprentices are in the area called Caesarea Philippi. That name was in honor of the Caesar of Rome who was considered to be the ruler of the world from India, to Egypt, to England and everything in between. There was a temple there to Augustus Caesar where he was worshipped as God. And before it was called Caesarea, it had been called Paneas, after the Greek God Pan. [25] And Peter is boldly standing up and proclaiming that Jesus is King over ALL. HE IS THE HIGHEST RULER AND AUTHORITY IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. ABOVE CAESAR, ANY EARTHLY POWER OR GOVERNMENT, ABOVE ANY OTHER GOD, HEAVENLY POWER, OR RELIGION.
    • This is great news people! Jesus stands in authority over us, over our city, over our government and our governor. He’s the ruler above any president. In whatever way Jesus leads us, that is how we’ll respond. King Jesus is our ultimate authority. And if he is for us, then we ultimately have nothing to fear in this life because he will bring us safely into the next. Peter also gives us another title for Jesus. He’s the Christ, the King, and he’s also THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD…
  • [26]THE UNIQUE SON WHO IS GOD: We’re so used to calling Jesus the Son of God that it doesn’t scandalize us the way it would have back then. There are places in the old testament where human beings are called Sons of God, there are places where heavenly beings like angels and Satan are called sons of God. But they are always described as “sons”, plural, more than one. They are created beings either human or heavenly. But Peter, when he says Jesus is the Son of God, he’s not saying he’s a created being. He’s saying Jesus is completely unique. He is saying you are THE Son of God. Singular. The Only one. There is no one like you. One of Jesus’ followers and probably his best friend named John said it this way. [27-29][John 1:1-5] [30] It tells us that Jesus has existed with God forever. He is not a created being. He was with God and He is God. He was part of creating everything and everyone. We could use the language of CO-ETERNAL with God, CO-CREATING with God because he is God.
    • Again, this is where Christianity departs from every other religion. Mormon’s say Jesus is the first child created by God, and is a spiritual being, the first of the sons of God. But he’s not also God like God the Father. Muslims say Jesus was a prophet sent from God, but not God. Even orthodox Jews don’t believe that Jesus is God. So when someone says Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Christians, all worship the same God we have to say no, because if they deny that Jesus is equally God with God the Father, we’re not on the same page. We’re not worshipping the same God. Jesus says I Am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH THE SON. Because if you reject the Son, you’re rejecting God. So if we want to be close to the Father, we have to turn to his Son, Jesus, the Son of the Living God. And the Creed gives us one last Title. Jesus is LORD…
  • [31]OUR MASTER: A Lord is someone who is our master, our authority, our owner. So why is this in here? Why not simply stick with Jesus is the Christ, the King? Why add “our Lord”? They kind of sound like the same thing. I think that this is where the rubber really hits the road. I think it’s possible to have a King that you don’t acknowledge. It’s possible to live in his Kingdom and choose to rebel against him, or ignore him. But when someone says “Jesus is My Lord” it means they have submitted to him. They are willingly choosing to be obedient. [32]To Say Jesus is “Our Lord” is to declare that you are not in control of your own life. You have willingly chosen to give everything to Jesus. MAKE NO MISTAKE…[33]

JESUS IS LORD: He is able to exercise control and power over all of creation. Last year we studied the book of Mark and it showed Jesus exercising power and control over DEMONS. They were terrified of him. When he showed up, they were like, Hey Jesus you’re early. Please don’t destroy us. He stood up in the middle of a STORMS and told it to shut up and stay shut up and it immediately stopped. He said, Hey Lazarus, stop being dead. And DEATH LET GO! But Jesus lovingly allows us to choose whether or not we will call him “our Lord” until the day he comes back. He’s not forcing himself on us. We get to choose him. Because he loves us. Because he died for us. AND WHEN WE DO, JESUS PROMISES ABUNDANT FULL LIFE. Not easy, not simple, but full life. Better relationships, more love, more peace, more hope, more joy. Less anger, less despair, less selfishness. BUT HERE IS THE BEAUTIFUL PROFOUND TRUTH ABOUT JESUS: YOUR KING, GOD, AND LORD DIED FOR YOU!

[Phil. 2:5-11] says it this way! Instead of looking at us from heaven and saying “tough break, you guys really screwed stuff up, he stepped down into this broken world and came near to us. Instead of using his power to build an earthly kingdom to serve himself, he served others. Instead of punishing us for stealing this world, acting like our own kings, denying any lord over us, he took our punishment and died on the cross. That is a king like no other. That is a God like no other religion. That is a Lord like no other.

• Most people will struggle with whether God loves them. They feel dirty, ashamed, unwanted, unworthy. And in Jesus we see that He loved you enough to die. You are wanted. You can be made clean. There is no sin so great that can’t be covered by his great love.
• Others will struggle with Jesus as Lord. I like his teaching. I’ll pick and choose the stuff that works for me. Or Everybody loves a God who saves, but we struggle with a God who is Lord. They claim him as Savior, but still act like they’re their own master and king. And when we do that, we’re not worshipping the real Jesus. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price.

• And if you want to experience true abundant full life, you have to choose him has all three. King, God, and Lord. You can’t pick one or two.

I want to end with what one of the followers of Jesus named Peter said. “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” [Acts 6:12]

WE WANT TO GIVE YOU A CHANCE TO THINK ABOUT HOW JESUS BEING THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD, OUR LORD, SHOULD IMPACT YOU.

The first is that if you have not chosen to give your life to Jesus, to say that I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, And I want his forgiveness and I will follow him as Lord, maybe that’s your first step. Check the box. Maybe you’re ready, to take the first step of baptism. In the early church, before people were baptized they would say the creed as they stood in the water.

[41]We’re going to head into our time of discussion. And I want you to talk about the following questions.

If Jesus really is King over all earthly and heavenly powers, how does that affect the way I react to what we’re going through right now?

How would you respond if someone said all religions are the same or aren’t we all worshipping the same God?

Which do you struggle with: Jesus as Savior or Jesus as Lord?

Why?