A Sermon Preached at Geraldton Anglican Cathedral 7th March 2021
Arthur Bryant in his history of England tells a story which I will try to relate, though I cannot guarantee that my memory has all the details correct. I have searched Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People and have found some of the story, but it is not the same as in Bryant. Anyway, he tells of the journey of the newly consecrated Bishop Paulinus from the south to the north of England, escorting a Christian princess who has been promised in marriage to Edwin, the pagan king of Northumbria. He is met and conducted to the long-house of the king, where he is invited to address the king and his counsellors. It was a winter’s night. He begins his address, “O King, six hundred years ago in the land of Palestine a man was born named Jesus,” and goes on to tell the gospel story. The king was impressed and asked his nobles what they thought. A pagan priest stood to speak, and as he did, a small bird flew into the long-house and began to flutter about in the firelight. His speech, and this is from Bede, went like this:
“The life of man upon earth, O king, seems to me, in comparison with that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the house wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your ealdormen and thegns, while the fire blazes in the midst, and the hall is warmed, but the wintry storms of rain or snow are raging abroad. The sparrow, flying in at one door and then out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter into winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all. If, therefore, this new doctrine tells us something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.”
This is how the English in the north received Christianity and came into the light. It was the Gospel story about Jesus Christ that did it. There are many in our own day, who wish to drag us back into the darkness.
Of course, all depends on the truth of the story. If Jesus is made up, and he never did rise from the dead, nor do the things said of him, then let me say, we are in darkness. We are just like that sparrow that flutters about in the warmth and the light and then disappears into the night.
So, when I say, “I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,” I am conscious that I need to be convinced that the story is true. For, if it is true, it makes all the difference between, on one hand, a world which despite all its darkness has been invaded by light, and is moving at its end to the light, and on the other, a world in which darkness rules and will in the end be victorious.
You may protest that Christianity is not the only religion, and I will reply that although there are other religions which may offer comfort, there is none that holds any real hope for the future. Religion is no help here, only the good news of a man who triumphed over death.
How then are we to know? In this church we put a lot of weight on the Bible. That is because we believe it to be a message from God. Neverthless, I do not believe in Jesus because I believe the Bible is the Word of God. No, I believe the Bible is the Word of God because of Jesus. It is important to get the order right. The Gospels are four first-century authors’ accounts of the man who they came to believe was God visiting his people. They tell why they came to this conclusion. They are testimony, and I can treat them as historical writings; I don’t have to believe they are inspired—not at first. I can assess them—cross-check them against each other and against the history of the times. In the end I have to make a personal judgement. Are they are telling the truth? Is this Jesus credible? Is there a better explanation—a natural one? After 64 years of inquiry I have to say that I am convinced they are telling the truth, in a way I couldn’t have been when I first believed as an eighteen year-old.
Of course, I cannot believe for you, but I can share with you what I have found. You must do your own thinking and judging, and praying. If you are doubtful, ask God, if he is real, to show you, but never forget that if your verdict is against Jesus, you must resign yourself to darkness, both now and for ever. This is what makes me somewhat suspicious of those who seem so eager to destroy the faith.
What then does our Creed affirm when it says, “I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.” We are saying three things here: firstly, that Jesus is the Christ: the Saviour-King promised to the Jews by generations of prophets; second, that he is the one and only Son of God; third, that he is our Lord. The meaning of this is spelt out in the Nicene Creed. The Council of Nicaea was the first general meeting of all the bishops from throughout the Christian world. It met in AD 325 in a town in modern-day Turkey to consider the challenge of Arianism. Arius was a priest who taught that Jesus was not fully God. He is like God, but less than God, a created being. The slogan of the movement was, “There was when the Son was not.” It was a large movement, consisting at one stage of more than half the Christian world. It is still with us in the form of Islam. The Council of Nicaea laid it out: when Christians say that Jesus is the Son of God they do not mean he is any less than God in his essential being. He is fully God: of the same substance as the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God. This is not to say the Father and the Son are the same. The Son is begotten of the Father, but not made. Sonship is a relationship thing—an eternal relationship. So, as regards his godness, the Son is in every way equally God and in no way less than the Father, though he is the Son of his Father. And yet the Creed also states that God is one, not two or three. This, of course, appears impossible to our minds, but the Council was driven to it by the evidence of Scripture, and the experience of ordinary Christians. Arianism was an attempt at an easier-to-believe faith, but it parted company with Scripture.
So, what is the Apostles’ Creed? First of all, we need to be clear it was not written by any apostle. Its authority is not on the same level as Scripture. It is rather a summary of apostolic teaching. No one knows who first crafted it, though much of it was around in the second century. It is found in different forms in the early church and, with the wording we know about, in AD 750. But it is clear where it began. At the end of Matthew’s Gospel—and this was written well before AD 100—the risen Jesus commands his apostles to teach the nations and to baptize in his name. Listen to what Matthew says.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Notice first that some worshipped and some were doubtful. This is understandable when you think what an extraordinary thing it is, that Jewish monotheists were driven to believing that God was actually among them in the person of Jesus. Note second that Jesus declares his authority: as a result of his death and resurrection he is now the Lord of the Universe. Third, he sends out his disciples to make him known in all the world. They are to tell his story so people may choose to be his disciples. Fourth, they are to baptize—baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are so closely associated as to share the one Name. This is where our Creed originates. It is a summary of what a person says they believe when they are baptized. We believe in the one almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, who has revealed himself as three distinct persons. This may seem complicated, but only if you try to rationalize it. You can flick a light-switch and enjoy the light, but you may never understand what light is, and how it works. Is it particles or energy waves? The two are totally different, and to our minds light has to be the one or the other. But it is both. And, of course, we all experience it every time we open our eyes. Similarly, with the Trinity. Every true Christian is brought to the Father when he or she believes in Jesus as God’s Son, and is filled with the Holy Spirit. We accept Jesus as our Lord and God, and he brings us to his Father and fills us with his Spirit. Christian experience is trinitarian, and anything else is not fully Christian. So, when we are baptized we declare our faith in the one God, who is Father, Son and Spirit. This is common to all orthodox Christian churches. I don’t care whether you are Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox (or Russian, Syrian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Romanian, or Serbian), Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Uniting, Baptist, Pentecostal—I could go on—your baptism in the one Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is recognized, and most churches don’t ask you to be rebaptized. The Apostles Creed is the baptismal faith of catholic and orthodox Christendom. It goes back behind all the splits.
But, I have to say, this faith is under attack—from within as well as form without. I was challenged by a Muslim leader in a public discussion in Cape Town. He pointed out the many things Christians and Muslims have in common. This is true; they do have a lot in common. He then said, “If Christians could only drop a few things that are deeply offensive to Muslims, we could join together and fight the real enemy: Secularism.” One of these offensive things is the belief that Jesus is truly God. To strengthen his case he began to quote Anglican theologians and commissions that said you do not have to believe Jesus is God to be a Christian; it is enough to believe that he is special in some way. “We Muslims believe that he is special,” he continued. “We honour him as a great prophet.” But I had to say, that theologians or official church commissions they might be, but if they no longer believe in the one catholic apostolic faith set out in our Creeds, they are no longer Christian. This liberalizing movement is tearing the church apart today, just as it did when Arianism was riding high. Sadly, some of it is coming from the top. But make no mistake, it is as different from Christianity as Islam is, even though it is the conviction of many who hold the reins of power in our churches.
But is the Creed biblical? I have said how it derives from the Great Commission. It is also the teaching you will find written large across the whole New Testament. For example, the Letter to the Hebrews begins: “In many and various ways God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world, who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, upholding the universe by his powerful word.” See if you can drive a wedge between Father and Son here, in terms of their shared godhead! The Son of God created the world! He also holds the world in existence at every moment—your heart would not continue to beat if the Lord Jesus did not empower it—it would not continue to exist!
He is the radiance of God’s glory. What does that mean? When you look at the sun, you see its radiance. Can you get closer? “I don’t want to see its radiance I want to see the sun itself!” So can your eye touch the fireball? Try even to gaze at it from 150 million kilometers, and it will be the end of your sight. But if you glance, or look at it though special glass, you can see it—its radiance That is how you see the sun. And God shows us himself—his radiance—through his Son. You will never see more of God than you will see in the Son. There are many passages like this.
I said you will never see more of God than you will see in Jesus. Those who try to approach God any other way than through Jesus—as I did once—as do our Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims and New-Agers—you will not find him. You will not find yourself in that precious relationship of a child of the Almighty Father, through his Son, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, who is God’s gift to all his people. But if you come to him, the one who says of himself, “I am the light of the world, whoever comes to me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” he promises us just that, what the English discovered all those years ago, and God help them to open their eyes again—and us— before we throw it all away! But even if we don’t, know that much of Africa, 100 million in China, much of South Korea, and millions in South America are now saying with conviction: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord …”