Pastor's Notes from Sunday morning message:
It is so important to belong to a fellowship of believers where you can find acceptance, the preaching of God's Word, others who will pray with you for your needs, and so much more.
SERMON: Digging into the Apostles Creed: The Holy Spirit, the Church, and the Communion of Saints
“I believe in the Holy Spirit.” The repetition of “I believe” when we come to this part of the creed suggests that we have come to a turning point. Something new is about to be said. The new thing is that we begin to confess something about ourselves. “I believe in God, the Father Almighty” confesses God over us. “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord” confesses God with and for us. But “I believe in the Holy Spirit” confesses God in and among us.” (Guthrie, 289)
The first two articles of the creed speak of God in relation to us. The third speaks of us in relation to God. The first two articles speak primarily of who God is and what God does. Now we come to speak of ourselves—the community of us Christians, the forgiveness of our sins, the resurrection of our bodies, our everlasting life.
I. The Holy Spirit—the Lord and Giver of Life
a. The Holy Spirit is the presence and work of the living God here and now in our individual lives, in the church, and in the world.
b. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in and among us. We need to think of the Holy Spirit’s relationship with us as a personal relationship between God and ourselves. Last week we talked about the Spirit being our partner in life.
c. The Old Testament shares some things with us about the Spirit that are not limited to the New Testament view that we covered a while back but will just emphasize a couple things this morning.
i. The Spirit is at work in God’s creation and preservation of the world and human life in it. It is no accident that the Nicene Creed calls the Holy Spirit “the Lord, the Giver of Life.”
1. Wherever there is life instead of death in the world (in human beings and in the natural environment of human beings) and wherever life is respected, preserved, and defended—there we may recognize the creative, life-giving Spirit of God at work.
ii. In the OT the Spirit of God is the source of all human culture, art, creativity, and wisdom. (Read Exodus 31:1-6)
iii. The Spirit is the Spirit of God who is on the side of all who are helpless, poor, wretched, and oppressed because they have been forgotten or excluded by the rich and powerful.
d. According to the New Testament, if we want a good picture of who the Holy Spirit is, we look at Jesus. We covered this last week. The NT connects the Spirit and Jesus in two ways: Jesus is the one who received and bore the Spirit, and the one who promised and sent the Spirit.
i. OT prophets spoke of the Messiah who would be filled with the Spirit (Isa. 11:1-2; 42:1; 61:1)
ii. The Gospels tells us that their prophecies were fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.
1. He was conceived by the Spirit.
2. At his baptism the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove.
3. By the power of the Spirit, Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, and brought the kingdom of God to the poor.
4. Peter sums it up by proclaiming Jesus as one whom God anointed “with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Acts 10:38).
iii. At this point we do not have to think of Jesus specifically as the Son of God or God-with-us. The Gospels teach us to think of him also as a human being who at every point in his life, in everything he said and did, was filled, led, inspired, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
iv. The Gospels tell us that if you want to know what it means to have the Spirit dwell within you, look at Jesus. He is our prime example of what it means to be a Spirit-filled person. With that in mind…it takes us to the Church and each one of us as individual believers within the church. How are we to be in this world?
II. The Church Universal
a. “…the holy catholic church…” This is talking about the Church universal—the body of Christ. It is not referring to the Roman Catholic Church. So, we have to ask ourselves the question, what is the Church?
i. The NT Greek word for church is ecclesia which means “an assembly of called-out ones.” This is applied three different ways in the NT.
1. The whole body of Christians in one city. (Acts 11:22; 13:1—the church in Antioch)
2. A congregation. (1 Cor. 14:19, 35; Romans 16:5)
3. The whole body of believers on earth. (Eph. 5:32)
ii. Our English word for “church” is derived from the Greek “kuriake,” meaning “that which belongs to the Lord.”
iii. The church then, is a company of people called out from the world, who profess and tender allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ.
b. There are a number of different words that describe Christians in the NT.
Brethren—the church is a spiritual brotherhood of fellowship, in which all divisions that separate mankind have been abolished.
Galatians 3:26-28 “for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
i.
1. “There is no Jew or Gentile”—the deepest of all divisions based on religious history is overcome.
2. “There is neither Greek nor barbarian”—the deepest of cultural divisions is overcome.
3. “There is neither slave or free”—the deepest of social and economic divisions is overcome.
4. “No male nor female”—the deepest of all human divisions is overcome.
ii. Believers—Christians are called believers because of their characteristic doctrine of faith in the Lord Jesus.
iii. Saints—consecrated holy ones—because we are separated from the world and dedicated to God.
iv. The Elect—they are referred to as the elect or the chosen due to an important ministry and a glorious destiny.
v. Disciples—we are learners.
vi. Christians—because of the person belonging to Christ.
vii. Those of the Way—in earlier times they were called this because they lived according to a special way of life.
c. There are different ways that the church is illustrated in the NT.
i. The Body of Christ—this means that the church is the place where the presence of Christ is manifested—which is His body.
1. One of the ways Jesus described himself was as the Vine and we are the branches. Neither is complete without the other. Jesus is the head of the body.
a. I John 4:17 says that “As He is, so are we in this world.”
2. The church is an organism not just an organization. An organization is a group of people voluntarily associated together for a certain purpose. An organism is any living thing, which developed by inherent life. Used figuratively, it is like the human body which is made up of millions of cells; in like manner the body of Christ is one, though composed of millions of believers. The human body is vitalized by the soul—the body of Christ is vitalized by the Spirit of God.
3. I Corinthians 12:12-27
ii. The Temple of God—a temple is a place in which God, who dwells everywhere, localizes Himself in one particular place where His people can always find Him. As God in the OT dwelt in the tabernacle and temple, so now He lives, by His Spirit, in the church—and dwells within you and me.
1. I Cor. 3:16 “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
2. Ephesians 2: 18-22 “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
iii. The Bride of Christ—a picture of the union and communion of God and His people.
1. Ephesians 5: 25-27 “Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
III. The People of God
a. As those belonging to Christ, if the Scripture tells us that as He is so are we in this world…how are we supposed to act? What should our lives be saying to others around us? What should be our attitudes toward one another? What should be our actions toward one another?
i. Jesus said in John 15:12, 17, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you…these things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
ii. John 13: 34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
b. Galatians 5:16-26 talks to us about what it means to live in the Spirit. The actions that our lives are to take exemplify the life-giving testimony of Jesus. So many things are birthed in our own selfishness and we need to be aware of the temptations to always have our own way. It’s just like training up a child in the way they should go—you want your children to not be self-centered but to understand the need to care for others. One of the ways you teach this is not to let your child have their way all the time. Our world today is a self-addicted, self-gratifying world and it is because of the self-centeredness of people’s hearts. This is not the way of Christ.
c. Ephesians 5:15-16 says “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.”
IV. The Bottom Line—Love One Another
a. Jesus is our example of how we are to live. We are to live and love sacrificially. We are to look out for one another, to care for one another, to love one another in a way that the other is honored above ourselves. We are to serve one another not out of selfish ambition…you scratch my back I will scratch yours type attitude—but we are to strive to honor Christ in our attitudes, our outlook on life, the way we treat one another etc.
b. We are the body of Christ…and we are His lights shining in a darkened world.
c. We have a powerful message, birthed in us by the Spirit of God…that Light has come, Love has come, Life has come—and His name is Jesus. A life dedicated to Him, full of the Spirit of God, will bring honor and praise to Jesus Christ…and hopefully encourage those who do not know Jesus to learn of Him and then to choose to serve the God you and I both love this morning.
d. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians emphasizes the truth that one part of the body of Christ cannot say to another part—I don’t need you. The entire idea of love is honoring every part—every individual. Each one of us has giftings of some kind—whether because of disability you can’t serve the way you would like—but you can be a prayer warrior. Perhaps you are young enough to be able to help around the building, serving, cleaning up, helping with whatever is needed. There are so many different ways to not only serve but to honor one another the ways we can. Every one of you here in the church is valuable not only to God, but to one another.
e. That is why it is so important to belong to a fellowship of believers. You are loved. You are encouraged. You are lifted up in prayer when needed. You are fed the Word of the Lord. You have fellowship, laughter, and care. The Lord knew we needed each other and when we belong, we understand and are encouraged for our faith to grow and to stay closely connected to Jesus—which is the ultimate goal of the church and to bring Him the glory, with all that we say and do.
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