Sermon for Sunday September 3rd, 2006

 I Believe by Dave Bootsma

Jude 1:1-1:23

During World War II allied armies marched into Germany on their way to Berlin. Retreating German soldiers switched road signs and destroyed landmarks in an effort to confuse their enemy. And, to an extent, it worked, for many a G.I. followed a false marker only to end up in the wrong place. That just goes to show the need for landmarks, the importance of reliable signposts by which to steer.

-if we believe in what is false, or if we are ignorant of what we are to believe, we also will get lost along the way; reach a dead end; the wrong place.

Jude is a letter written in response to teachers who came along within the church and set up false markers, leading people astray by distorting the Christian faith

-thus, Jude urges the church to "contend for the faith"

“But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 20)

Three comments about this: (Ray Pritchard)
First, note the sacred nature of the Christian faith. -- “most holy faith” -- value, worth, preciousness. Faith is not secondary.

Second, spiritual growth is not optional. -- "build yourselves up" is a command. If you don’t, you won’t remain neutral spiritually, but grow ignorant and be prone to stray.

Third, spiritual growth does not happen by accident. -- it is connected to faith. If you want to grow, you must grow in faith.

But it is not just any faith. This is talking about something specific, and it represents the summary of what it means to be a Christian; the CONTENT of the Christian faith.

Q: What is meant by the most holy faith? What is the summary of what we believe? The Apostle’s Creed.


HISTORY
As many of you know, the Apostles’ Creed is an elaboration of a very old creed which had been circulating in various areas of early Christianity.
was used for multiple purposes. It was used for catechism training, for teaching Christians the basics of the Christian faith. It was also used as a baptismal confession. When believers came before the church to profess their faith in Christ, not having previously been baptized, they would be schooled in the Apostles’ Creed and then the minister would ask them each of the phrases of the Apostles’ Creed and ask them to affirm this as their faith, before they were baptized, not unlike the way we ask the five questions of membership, to adults who come to the church now to receive baptism and profess faith in Jesus Christ.

But the Apostles’ Creed was also used in worship. the Apostles’ Creed was incorporated and said as part of worship in the gathered services of the Church.

And so, for hundreds of years the Apostles’ Creed has both served as an instrument for instructing Christians in the basics of the Christian faith, and as an instrument for Christians to express, in worship, their common confession in the one true God.

Every time we recite the Apostle’s Creed we are reminded that we are not alone in our beliefs; we are connected to millions around the world who believe the same, and it links us with those who have gone before throughout the ages. Our faith has roots and history.

In his book on the Apostles’ Creed, Don Cole offers four reasons why the Creed eventually became a formal statement of faith:

1) To help the early church distinguish truth from error. -- what do we believe?
2) To provide a basis for refuting heresy. -- what do we not believe?
3) To provide a basis for Christian fellowship. -- there is no unity without common convictions and beliefs
4) To ensure consistent teaching among all the churches. -- there is something comforting and reassuring that we can go to a Christian church in another city or nation, that holds to and teaches the same beliefs as our own.

SERIES: Faith Matters -- What do we mean by the various phrases and stanzas of the Apostles’ Creed, and how do these biblical truths relate to our daily lives? Well, we’re going to try and answer some of those questions as we study through this ancient confession of faith phrase by phrase.

This morning: “I believe.”
-- these are perhaps the hardest words to get past in the entire creed

Our Culture’s Response to Faith:

-we live in a strange time when the very concept of belief is under fire. If you believe something to be absolutely true, you are suspect, and you may well be the root problem of all the problems in the modern world.

i.e.. faith is dangerous.
You’ve heard the saying that there are two types of people in the world--those who believe there are two types of people in the world and those who don’t. And this is the view of the post-modern. He thinks that those people who think that there are two types of people in the world, the right and the wrong-they’re the problem. They think that you are dangerous if you believe in absolute truth. If you divide the world into people who are right and people who are wrong, you’re a problem. You are a social threat.

Then there are people who think that faith is relative. -- true for you, but not for me.

"In talking about religion, if you’re well known, anything you say sort of ticks off a bunch of other people and sort of attacks their belief. So I always try to say that, first and foremost, I think that whatever anybody believes, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, it’s fair enough and works." -- George Clooney

i.e.. That you believe in something is commendable, but WHAT you believe is ultimately irrelevant. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it works for you, and doesn’t offend anyone.

Consider this quote from a 20-something backpacker in Boston when asked what he believed:
“I don’t know what I believe in. And if I believe-I believe there’s some Higher Power, I think. But I don’t know. Like right now I’m at a point where I don’t know what to believe, but I’m open to everything. So I like to believe in everything, because I don’t know what it is I truly believe in.”

According to Jesus, what you believe is absolutely essential. When He said, "he who believes (in me) has everlasting life", he also meant that whoever does not believe will not have everlasting life.

Romans 1:16 declares that the gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to “everyone who believes.” And Romans 10:9-10 adds the concept of believing “in your heart,” which means to believe from the depth of your being. Salvation depends on what we believe. That’s why the gospel of John over 80 times declares that salvation comes to those who believe.

Belief is absolutely essential. Belief is what gets you into heaven, relationship with God, sins forgiven, etc.

Not surprisingly, therefore, before they were called Christians, followers of Jesus were called "believers". What set them apart from the rest of the world was not their morals but that they believed that Jesus was the Son of God, who died and rose again.


Scary! -- Many Christians believe that it is okay to pick and choose what to believe and what not to. Some say, "well this is what I believe. You may not, and that’s okay." (e.g.. reincarnation; denial of miracles; denial of atonement; everyone goes to heaven; etc.)

- Problem: have nothing to do with the Christian faith, which undermines Christianity, the Church and their own personal lives, and the very honor of God.

If true: Then why in the world would we be told to "contend for the faith", and how could we "build ourselves up in the most holy faith?"

When we say the Apostle’s Creed and say "I believe", we don’t simply believe that this to be true for us, but we believe this to be the truth-the truth about God, the truth about Christ, the truth about the Holy Spirit, the truth about the Church, the truth about reality

One thing the Church, our church, needs to be clear on: Doctrine. If we are fuzzy here, EVERYTHING else will become fuzzy.



Everyone has beliefs, whether those beliefs are very well thought out or not. We are all "theologians". Everyone believes that either there is a God or isn’t a God, or many gods. Whether or not one has given a lot of thought to that question is not the issue. The fact is that whatever vague or well-thought-out notion one has theologically, it is highly determinative of how that person will live his or her life.

Q: What is your faith/beliefs based upon? How you feel/your heart? Is it worthy of your trust? etc.

OBJECTION: “No one can know truth for certain, so no one can claim that there is an absolute truth.” But isn’t such a claim ITSELF an absolute? A statement of faith?

In the words of C.S. Lewis: “For agnosticism is, in a sense, what I am preaching. I do not wish to reduce the skeptical element in your minds. I am only suggesting that it need not be reserved exclusively for the New Testament and the Creeds. Try doubting something else.”
Try doubting what your skeptical peers, parents, media or teachers say about God, truth, the Bible and the purpose of life.
Try doubting your own intellect or heart. You’ve been wrong about things before. Doubt your belief that you are competent to run your own life.
But not only that, I would also counsel you to make a genuine effort to seek God.

Application:

Good News! -- "I believe", not "I do" or "don’t do". God does the revealing and the doing, and calls on us to believe it. Eternal life, relationship with God, heaven, forgiveness, being a member of God’s family, are all based on belief.

Can there be a simpler salvation? Can there be better news to a guilty, fearful, shameful, helpless, powerless, far from perfect heart?
The gospel is not "try harder", "do better", but BELIEVE.

"I want to" or "I’m trying, but I doubt". Maybe your faith has been shaken; your world turned upside down.
25He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Q: Slow to believe? Doubtful? Good news! Jesus knows, is patient, WANTS you to believe, and has a solution. Given a SOURCE for faith: The Bible.

Biblical faith is a response to revelation; to embrace truth as revealed. Not "blind faith. "

Build yourself up in the faith.
Learn this -- memorize!

Teach it to your children

Seeker: Christianity ultimately is not about morals and lifestyle, nor is it about going to church and practicing religion. It is about faith in certain claims and truths. More than that, it is to entrust your soul and eternity to that faith, to Christ.
What does that look like?

Charles Blondin In the 19th century, the greatest tightrope walker in the world was a man named Charles Blondin. On June 30, 1859 he became the first man in history to walk on a tightrope across Niagara Falls. Over 25,000 people gathered to watch him walk 1,100 feet suspended on a tiny rope 160 feet above the raging waters. He worked without a net or safety harness of any kind. The slightest slip would prove fatal. When he safely reached the Canadian side of the Falls, the crowd burst into a mighty roar.

In the days that followed he would walk across the Falls many times. Once he walked across on stilts, another time he took a chair and a stove with him and sat down midway across, cooked an omelet and ate it. Once he carried his manager across riding piggyback. And once he pushed a wheelbarrow across loaded with 350 pounds of cement. On one occasion he asked the cheering spectators if they thought he could push a man across sitting in a wheelbarrow. A mighty roar of approval rose from the crowd. Spying a man cheering loudly, he asked, “Sir, do you think I could safely carry you across in this wheelbarrow?” “Yes, of course.” “Get in,” the Great Blondin replied with a smile. The man refused.

That makes it clear, doesn’t it? It’s one thing to believe a man can walk across by himself. It’s another thing to believe he could safely carry you across. But it’s something else entirely to get into the wheelbarrow yourself. Believing in Jesus is like getting into the wheelbarrow. It’s entrusting all that you are to all that he is.