1

Creed W

EEk 6

SERIES INTRO: This eight-week study is based on a sermon series on worship and the psalms called “Grace and Gratitude: Worshiping a Gracious God with a Grateful Heart.” Worship is our response to God and the grace and love he shows us in Jesus. Worship is how we relate to God—gathering, singing, confessing, hearing God’s Word, celebrating our unity with him through baptism and the Table, professing our faith to one another, and then re-entering the world as those who are ready to be part of God’s mission. The psalms lead us into worship, reminding us that God not only hears and understands all our many different prayers, needs, and emotions, but welcomes us and rejoices with us as we draw closer to him.

Mark Labberton, a contemporary pastor/theologian, calls worship a “dangerous act.” He writes, “When worship is our response to the One who alone is worthy of it—Jesus Christ—then our lives are on their way to being turned inside out. Every dimension of self-centered living becomes endangered as we come to show God’s self-giving heart.” Centuries earlier, Augustine said the gathering for worship is the “fundamental and original form of the church, for it is through this gathering that the church expresses to itself and to the world its nature, its purpose, its mission, and its role in history.” I believe both are correct!

A few years ago, followers of Jesus from around the world worked together to create a document called “Worshiping the Triune God” that attempted to explain the amazing potential of worship through a series of contemporary ‘proverbs.’ I was asked to write a commentary on these, and the book Wise Church: Exploring Faith and Worship with Christians Around the World came into being. We will be using some excerpts from this book as the basis for our small group study throughout this series.

Each week there will be different types of questions. Some might be better for longer-term small groups and others might be more useful for the new groups formed through Taste & See. Leaders may pick and choose what they want to focus on depending on the make up of their small group. May all we say and do over these next weeks encourage us all in our lives of grateful worship! ped

2

WEEK SIX INTRO:

Frequently in our worship at First Pres we affirm our faith by saying a creed. Usually it is the Apostle’s Creed. For special services we may say the Nicene Creed or some other biblical statement of faith. This is a way of bringing the whole congregation together with a statement of our common faith. One challenge with the public, unison recitation of creeds is that, if we’re not careful, we may tend to say them in a purely intellectual way. Originally, all the historical creeds were a doxological witness—a way of praising God together, a cry of faith from the heart—not a mere belief system to be recited from memory. THE APOSTLE’S CREED We don’t have an exact history of the Apostle’s Creed. The earliest known mention of it occurs in 390. No matter its origin, the Apostle’s Creed has been used throughout the history of the church as the creed said by individuals at the time of their baptism. Since this began as a personal statement of faith, notice it starts with the personal statement, “I believe...”. At First Pres we still use it that way—saying the creed in the responsive or “catechetical” form of questions and answers:

Q: Do you believe in God the Father? I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

Q: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Q: Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit? 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.

3

THE NICENE CREED The Nicene Creed is a statement of the orthodox faith of the early Christian church in opposition to certain heresies concerning teachings about the trinity and the person of Jesus the Christ. Both the Greek (Eastern) and the Latin (Western) church honored this creed, although with one important difference: the Western church insisted on the inclusion of the phrase "and the Son" (known as the "filioque") in the article on the Holy Spirit. This originated at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) with additions by the Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381). It was accepted in its present form at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. From the very beginning this was a congregational (corporate) statement of faith. Notice it begins with the plural, “We believe…”.

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven; he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and was made human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried. The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and to life in the world to come. Amen.

4

JESUS IS LORD! One of the simplest biblical affirmations of faith is found in the phrase, “Jesus is Lord,” but those are three very powerful words! The person who says, “Jesus is Lord,” with a full understanding of what that means (Jesus is God and has supreme authority over all things) has been enabled to say this by the Holy Spirit, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Faith in the Lord Jesus is required for salvation (Acts 16:31). The statement “Jesus is Lord” means that Jesus is God. Jesus has “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). He is Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:5). He is “our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 1:4). He is, in fact, the Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14). OTHER BIBLICAL CREEDS Another way followers of Jesus can express our faith is through reciting together words adapted from Scripture. One example of this is:

We proclaim the good news that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day and that he appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve. 1 Corinthians 15:3b-5 We proclaim him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God; we confess that he is the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Revelation 2:13 And we commit our lives to him as or Lord and our God. Whatever form it takes, saying a creed together is a way of rehearsing God’s salvation story as part of our worship—helping us to avoid worshiping an “unknown God.”

Questions for Discussion

Questions on the Creeds: 1. Read the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed. What statements are similar?

What do you see in one that you don’t see in the other?

5

2. Remembering that the Nicene Creed was written to counter false teaching about the Trinity, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and the Apostle’s Creed was designed as a profession of faith before baptism, what parts of the Creeds illustrate their original use most clearly?

3. What are some other biblical statements that could be valuable for use as a creed in worship?

Select from Questions about Acts 17:16-33 1. What was Paul’s response to being in a culture with so many gods? What did

he preach? Do you see the connection?

2. How does Paul begin his message to the philosophers? What important principle can we learn for witnessing to those whose beliefs differ greatly from ours?

3. What does Paul declare about this God that they do not know? What aspects of his nature and character does he include?

4. How do we cope with a world that seems to know (or care so little about the truth of Jesus Christ?

5. What did they misunderstand about what Paul was preaching?

6. Is the resurrection of Jesus as unusual to people today as it was to Paul’s listeners in Athens?

7. What does Paul say about God’s mercy toward them?

Scripture

Acts 17:16-33

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was troubled within him when he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Then also, some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers argued with him. Some said, “What is this pseudo-intellectual trying to say?” Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the Resurrection.

6

19 They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you’re speaking of? 20 For what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these ideas mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new. 22 Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. 23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it—He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands. 25 Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28 For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Being God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination. 30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.” 32 When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him. But others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” 33 Then Paul left their presence.

__________________________________________________

Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.