Confessing the Spirit and the Church

Day in and day out, media, news, entertainment, anxieties, fear, finances, broken bodies, all of it is telling us you live in a material world.

You live in a world where having fun matters, having the most fun matters, doing the next thing, you know, it's just this empty, empty, empty world.

And the creed says, no.

The creed militates against that and says, no, you live in a world with Christ at the center.

Where God has died and raised, where you've been filled with his fullness and gathered into a body that has died with him and is rising with him and will rise with him.

You live in this reality, Christian.

So may we increasingly do that.

The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church.

May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

We will be looking at our second and final message as we work through the Nicene Creed.

This seg, these two sermons on the Nicene Creed are kind of the capstone on the series working through the Psalms that we just finished up, because the Psalms concluded with

seeing how God calls his people to confess the truth together.

And so now we move to look at.

One of those confessions that has bound the church together for the majority of her lifespan.

That is the what is called the Nicene Creed.

I'll just read the whole creed for you and you can listen, and then I'll talk about the second half, which is what we're going to be looking at this morning.

But the creed that every Christian since about the middle of the fourth century, 300s, has been believing is this.

I believe in one God, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,

begotten of the Father, before all ages, so before time, this is not a creation within time, light of light, true God of true God, begotten not created, of one essence with the

Father, through whom all things were made.

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man, he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,

and suffered and was buried, and he rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.

His kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the creator of life, who proceeds from the Father, who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who spoke through the

prophets in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come.

Amen.

So that's what we're going to look at this morning, the second half there, starting with and the Holy Spirit.

Now, you might say, wait a second, we are a Bible church.

We believe the Bible.

We believe this is God's word.

So why are we taking two sermons to look at words that men wrote down when we have Scripture in front of us?

And that's an important question because we are a church that believes Scripture to be the inspired word of God.

And this is our authority, the Holy Spirit working through this text.

Is our supreme authority.

So why are we looking to a creed?

Well, two reasons at least.

The first is that this creed safeguards and clarifies the teaching that's found in Scripture.

Because every heretic that has ever existed has been able to point to Scripture and say, that's what I believe, right there.

It's a matter of interpretation.

And so the creeds guard the apostolic.

Interpretation, the apostolic teaching, such that the authority that the creed has derives from the text itself.

We confess it to be authoritative because it faithfully interprets what is found here.

So it's not an it's not an authority apart from the text.

It has its authority because it gives the interpretation of what's found in the text.

If it didn't say something found in the text, if it made up something, then we would say, well, that undercuts its own authority.

But it's it guards and clarifies what is found in here so that we can say, here's what I believe, here's what I believe, and know that Scripture is beneath it, supporting it.

Secondly, it's worth our time looking at this creed because for the last 1700 years, this creed has been the core expression of the faith agreed upon by all the different branches

of the church.

Every branch, every every extension.

Of Christianity that still remains Christianity, give or take, some very small corner issues that we're not going to get into right now.

But every expression of Christianity has been able to confess: this is what we believe.

This is what we believe.

So if the church is a river, a broad river, and you have some denominations here and some denominations here, and on the far edges, it turns into this marshland of kind of strange.

Idiosyncratic beliefs.

The church is this river.

The creed, the Nicene Creed, is the deeply carved rut at the center of that river, running through the center.

This is what it means to be at the very center of what we as a church believe, because this has held together the body of Christ.

This has been an expression of what the body of Christ believes from the beginning.

So, for these two reasons, because it safeguards what we find taught in the text and gives the apostolic interpretation of that, and because it has been the center, the center, the

safe center of the church for 1700 years, it's worth spending some time to look at this.

That's why we're looking at this.

Now, last week we looked at what this creed says about the Father and the Son.

This week we're looking at what it says about the Spirit and the Church.

Now,

When this creed was originally composed in Nicaea in 325, it ended with, and the Holy Spirit.

We believe this, this, this, and the Holy Spirit.

And so when it came to the Council of Chalcedon in 381, they said, we want to maintain the teaching of Nicaea because that's the apostolic faith, but we want to fill out our

understanding of the Spirit.

We need to be clearer about what we believe about the Holy Spirit and about.

What the church is in light of the spirit.

So that's what we're going to be looking at today.

Now, one note of historical import that I need to mention here.

The version of the creed that I read for you a few moments ago.

That is the version that would have been originally composed in 381.

We're not going to get super deep in history, but I need to touch on this.

I need to touch on this.

That is the version that would have been originally composed in 381.

And specifically, it talks about the spirit of.

Proceeding from the Father.

It says the Spirit who proceeds from the Father.

And it's getting that from places like John 15, 26, where Jesus says, When the helper comes, who I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the

Father, he will bear witness about me.

So the creed says the Spirit proceeds from the Father.

Now, that was the original text.

A few hundred years later, as there were some new

Heresies arising, and the deity of the Son was brought into question.

A text, a part was added to the creed.

The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

And that was primarily to safeguard the Son is fully God.

The Son is fully God, so much so the Spirit proceeds from him as it does from the Father.

So that was added later.

That's there's there's legitimacy to that, and you'll read the creed with that added to it: the Father and the Son.

And there's no issue with that, but I'm giving you the old version, the original version.

So just know that.

If you see it with and the son, just realize, okay, this version incorporates that addition that was made a few hundred years later.

If you see it just the spirit proceeds from the Father, okay, this is the old version from that original, the original writing in 381.

You say, okay, what is that all?

I just want to give you that clarity because as you dig into this, you might find it differently and you think, what's going on?

I want to give you that little historical note.

More could be said, a lot more has been said about that.

But for now, that's what I'm going to leave it at.

Okay, with that said, let's look at Acts 238.

This is going to be one of our kind of main texts today, because what Peter says in Acts 238, I think you'll see the creed is drawing from this in the way it talks about the

section we're looking at today.

So here's what Peter says in Acts 2, 38.

He's just proclaimed the risen Christ.

The Holy Spirit has just come in Pentecost.

So we are we are in a Holy Spirit register, like this, this is dealing with the Spirit.

The Spirit has just come upon them, and the people say, What can we do?

And Peter responds and he says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.

And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Let me pray, and then we'll look at how the creed interweaves with this and what it means for us today.

Let me pray first.

So, Father, this very same Holy Spirit, of whom the Creed speaks, of whom Peter speaks here, who is living and present with us now, we pray for the Spirit to be at work this

morning, to guard, to clarify, to empower, and to enable this time, Lord, upstairs now and downstairs as the children are being taught.

Lord, to be a time where you are at work, where you are doing work in the lives of your people.

Come as fire falling upon kindling that turns it into something that gives light and heat, come by the Spirit and fall upon this time together, that these words, these little human

words I speak, would be made carriers of the working of your Holy Spirit in the lives of your people as Christ is lifted up, as we are drawn to him, and as we are united together

in one body.

Help us, Father, we look to you.

And we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now, you can perhaps hear the similarity between the creed and the passage that I just read.

The creed says, we believe in the Holy Spirit, and then in one holy church, and we confess the baptism for forgiveness of sins.

And what Peter says here is repent, be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit.

So baptism, forgiveness,

Spirit, it's all it's all intertwined in this text in Acts and in the Creed.

Now, what I want to do for us is to first ask, how does Scripture, how does Acts present the Holy Spirit here?

Because this is like when the Spirit shows up, Pentecost.

When the Spirit shows up, how does the scripture present the Spirit here?

And then we'll move to say, and how does the creed emphasize or sharpen or clarify that?

So first we're gonna look at the text, then we'll move to the creed, specifically right now asking this question about the spirit.

We'll move to the one church and baptism and resurrection briefly after that.

But let's ask ourselves: what is what does Acts here tell us about the Spirit?

Well, in Acts 2:38, which I just read, Peter says the spirit is a gift.

Acts 2:38

Do you see that?

You will see, you will receive the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift.

Of the Holy Spirit.

Be baptized in the name of Jesus, forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit's presented as a gift there.

And then earlier in verses 32 and 33, the Holy Spirit is presented as a promise.

Peter says this: Jesus raised, this Jesus, God raised up, and all of us are witnesses of this.

Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing.

So the Spirit is there called a promise.

Jesus being raised from the dead receives the promise of the Spirit and then pours the Spirit as a gift upon his people.

So the Spirit is a promise received by Jesus and a gift.

Given to the church.

I want to look at those two things, starting with the idea of a promise.

It says there that this Jesus being raised from the dead, verse 33 of Acts chapter 2, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured it out.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So the Spirit is a promise received by Christ before anyone else receives the Holy Spirit, before the church receives the Holy Spirit, Jesus receives the Spirit.

Jesus is the one who inherits the promise of the Holy Spirit.

And the church receives the Spirit secondarily.

Christ is the one faithful human being.

Jesus is the one faithful covenant servant, the only one.

Every other one falls by the wayside.

Jesus is the true human being.

And as the true human being raised up from the dead,

Having achieved all things, he alone receives the promises that were given throughout the whole Old Testament.

He is the offspring, the offspring of Abraham, who receives the promises that were given through the Old Testament.

Jesus is.

And ultimately, every promise is summed up in this one phrase that you've heard before: I will be their God, they will be my people.

That's the if you want to boil down what's the promise of the Old Testament?

I will be their God.

They will be my people.

And Jesus receives the fullness of that promise when he's raised from the dead.

He inherits that promise fulfilled.

And at the center of that promise, this promise that God will dwell with his people.

God will gather the nations into his presence.

God will be with his people.

At the center of that promise is the Holy Spirit.

Is the Holy Spirit.

Let me read for you Acts, or I'm sorry, Ezekiel 36, which says this.

Ezekiel 36, verse 27.

Ezekiel 36:27

This is looking forward to the new covenant, the time the promises are fulfilled.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

I will give you a new spirit.

My spirit I will put within you.

I'll bring you into my place, and I will be your God, and you will be my people.

That shouldn't be surprising to us, because if the promise is ultimately, I will be with you, my presence will be with you, and the Holy Spirit is the presence of God, then of

course the coming of the Spirit, the receiving of the Spirit is the fulfillment of the promise that God will be with us.

When God sends his spirit to be in Christ, and then through Christ to his people, that's the fulfillment of the promise of his presence.

The spirit is his presence.

And so where the spirit is present, God, the promise is fulfilled.

I am with you, you are mine, and I am yours.

So Jesus being raised up from the dead enters into the inheritance promised to God's people throughout the Old Testament.

God dwelling with him by the Holy Spirit, and he, the one true people of God in relationship to God.

Now I'm speaking about Jesus here as a man, okay?

Of course, as God, as the Son of God, eternally the Spirit is Christ's.

He is eternally in the single relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit.

But as the man, the covenant servant, Jesus Christ, as the man.

Who's raised up from the dead, he enters into the inheritance of God's presence through the promised Holy Spirit.

As the risen Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the King, the Messiah, he rises from the dead and says, Now I have inherited every promise ever made to God's people.

And the fullness of all those promises is the very Spirit and presence of God given to him.

And he receiving that promise pours it out on his church.

Now, an image to help you with this is think of a man who inherits an estate.

It's his, he inherits the estate.

But now that he's inherited it, he can invite his friends to come be part of it.

Because of their relationship to him, they can come enjoy the estate that is his estate.

Similarly, Christ inherits the spirit.

As the man Jesus Christ raised from the dead, he inherits the promise of the Holy Spirit.

He does.

Then we get to come into that promise through relationship to him.

We get to enter that promise.

Just like you say, hey, my friend inherited this awesome lakeside estate, and he's invited me to go there this week, and I can enjoy it because he's my friend.

So too, we say, Jesus Christ has inherited the Spirit of God and

I can be filled with the Spirit.

I can enter into the Spirit is in me as well.

I can receive the gift of the Spirit because of my union to Christ, because of my relationship to Christ.

So the Spirit is the promise that Jesus, as the risen man, who is also God, inherits.

Now that leads directly into the second part.

The Spirit, as the promise that Jesus inherits, the Spirit is the gift that Jesus gives.

To his church, the gift that Jesus pours out on his church.

And again, Acts 2, 38, Peter says, they say, what should we do?

He says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive with that baptism the gift of the Holy

Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit is the gift that God in Christ gives to us, to us.

Now just pause and think about that gift language for a second.

Think about gifts that you give.

When you give a gift to someone on their birthday or for an anniversary, or think about a really big gift, like a the gift that a father gives to his daughter and son-in-law on the

day of their wedding.

Those gifts are they're something we care about.

If you give a gift like that, you're thinking they're going to appreciate this.

This is valuable.

This is good.

We don't, like Jesus says, we don't give coal.

We don't give worthless things.

When you give a gift, especially in a significant moment, you're giving a gift that is good, that you say, This is valuable.

Receive this gift.

Now, if that's true for humans, how much more if the Holy Spirit is the gift that the supreme gift giver, the best gift giver, gives on the greatest of all occasions?

The death

Resurrection, the death, burial, resurrection, and enthronement of Jesus Christ envisioned as one event, the greatest event, the best gift giver in light of this event, gives a

gift.

Do you think that gift will be valuable?

Do you think that that gift will be life-changing?

It will be awesome if you give a good gift, if I try to give a good gift, if your parents have given you good gifts.

Infinitely more, this gift is an awesome thing.

God says, What can I give at this moment?

The Spirit, which is his whole self, of course.

We'll get to that in a moment.

The Spirit is God.

So all this to say, do not think the gift of the Spirit is ho-hum.

All right, okay.

Well, it helps me, and I feel warmer during a worship song, or maybe I feel like I shouldn't do this, or I should do this.

The Spirit does stuff like that, but the Holy Spirit is the gift of God Himself given to us at the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

This is the fullness of God's life given to us.

God opens the storehouses and gives us the best gift imaginable, Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit.

And you've received that.

I've received that.

And we don't want to be like the couple whose parents gave them a beach home for Chris for their for their wedding, and they just never go there.

They don't even they don't even remember they have it.

They don't even, they don't think about it.

And they're they're there freezing up in Minnesota, perhaps.

And they don't even think we could go to the beach home our parents gave us, or they've got this place.

Let's not be that way.

God has given the gift of the Spirit.

And may we all together and individually desire, Father, everything this is, everything this is, I want to receive.

Everything you have given us in the Spirit.

Let us be aware of it.

Let us be sensitive to us to it.

Let us be receptive to it.

And let us know the fullness of this awesome gift.

Because the gift is the promise Christ has received, or the spirit is the promise Christ has received, the spirit is the gift Christ has given.

And then the creed helps us to see, moving to the second part, the spirit is God Himself.

This isn't just a force, an idea, a religious feeling.

The Spirit who Christ has received by his resurrection and poured out from the throne is God.

The Spirit is God.

The creed clarifies that.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the creator of life.

This is the gift you've been given.

He is the gift you've been given.

Who proceeds from the Father, who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who spoke through the prophets.

So the creed clarifies for us: the Holy Spirit is God.

Don't be deceived.

The Holy Spirit is God Himself.

And we see that not just there in the Creed, but in Scripture.

The Spirit is explicitly called the Lord in 2 Corinthians 3:7.

2 Corinthians 3:7

The Spirit is the maker and giver of life in Genesis 1 2 and Ezekiel 37, where he's the breath that brings the dead to life.

The Spirit is omnipresent in Psalm 139.

Where shall I go from your spirit?

Where shall I hide from your presence?

And the Spirit is presented indivisibly with God in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

Let me read this one for you, just so you can see this.

1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 10 through 11.

1 Corinthians 2:10–11

These things, speaking of the gospel, God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

What's being said there is, think about your own spirit.

How do you even define that?

It's hard to define, but we all know there's something there.

There's your spirit.

If your spirit is gone, you're dead.

Your spirit is not divisible from you.

Your spirit is indivisible from you in a mysterious way, but we all get that.

And Paul here says the spirit, the Holy Spirit, is the spirit of God, indivisible from God.

You can't separate him out.

If God is God, the Spirit of God is God.

And so the creed, without getting into all these specifics, so it's good to know them.

The creed helps us remember the Holy Spirit is God.

Let's not be confused on that point.

Let's not think he's a force or an idea.

He is God.

If he's called God in Scripture, he's called what God is called, he does what God does, he's indivisible from God, then he is to be worshipped as God because he himself is God.

And the creed clarifies this and sets it before our eyes, reminding us you believe this.

You believe this.

Don't stray from this.

And then what we looked at in Acts would emphasize that and say, and this one who is God, our Savior has received fully, as a man, the man, Christ Jesus, has received fully the

gift of the Spirit and given him to us.

Given him to us.

The second thing that the creed implies about the Spirit is that the Spirit is the union between the head, Christ, and the body, the church.

Now it implies that in the creed because it moves straight from I believe in the Holy Spirit to I believe in the church.

You're like, well, what's the connection there?

But we see that connection clearly in Scripture.

Let me read for you Ephesians chapter two, where this is made more clear.

Ephesians chapter two, verses twenty and following says this.

em

church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a

holy temple in the Lord.

In him, in Christ, you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The Spirit unites the church around Christ.

The Spirit unites the church in Christ.

The spirit is the one who unifies the one body of Christ.

And so it's it makes sense that the creed moves from the spirit to the church.

So let's take that same step with it.

Moving from, okay, the Holy Spirit, who is God, the promise, and the gift.

Now let's consider the church, whom this spirit creates, unites together, binds together.

Just like in a similar way, not exactly, but in a similar way.

As a human body is moved and empowered and given life by the human spirit within it, so too the church is moved and empowered and given life by the Holy Spirit within it.

It's not a one-to-one, but it's similar.

Your body, the spirit, keeps it alive, holds it your whole, your own spirit, your human spirit is in it, uniting it, keeping it alive.

The body of Christ, the Holy Spirit.

Is doing that same kind of work.

You get this idea in Ephesians 4.

Peter or Paul says, be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The unity we have, Christian, is a unity in the Spirit.

The Spirit is who unites us around Christ, a personal unity.

Maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body, one spirit.

Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all.

And so when the creed says, I believe in one holy Catholic apostolic church, it's not saying there's a particular institutional church that is the church.

Catholic, remember, means universal.

When the creed says that, what it's meaning is, just as there is one spirit.

And one Lord, so too all those who have confessed Christ by that one Spirit and confess that one Lord are in one body.

That's the idea.

We're confessing there is a there is a oneness, there is a unity around Christ, and that unity is worked by the Spirit.

And that's who the He's the one who holds us together.

Now, we could say so much more about the oneness of the church and where the edges of the church are.

Why are Mormons not Christians?

Because they're not.

And the this creed actually explains why they're not.

I'm not going to be able to get into all that today, but this is not just academic stuff out there.

This is like when a Mormon comes to your door and says, Hi, I'm a Christian just like you.

You can say, ah, no, you're not, because of what we find in the creed and because of the one spirit who binds us into one church around the one Jesus Christ.

More about that another time.

Come to any of the pastors we can talk to about that.

But let's move on.

Let's move on.

The creed then moves from the spirit to the church to baptism.

Why?

Why does it then move into baptism?

Well, this shouldn't really be a surprise because Paul includes baptism right here in this same text in Ephesians 4.

When you ask the apostle Paul, tell me about the oneness of the church.

Tell me about the unity of the church.

The Apostle Paul thinks this: well, unity in the Holy Spirit, one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

So the Apostle Paul, working by the Holy Spirit, puts baptism together with this idea of the unity and the oneness of the church.

So why would this be?

Why is baptism in here?

Three things, I think, at least.

One is that from the very beginning, baptism has been understood to be the moment that someone receives the Holy Spirit.

Now you're gonna say, wait a second, wait a second.

In Acts they receive the Holy Spirit, not being baptized.

That's right.

That's right.

It is possible.

It's possible.

But in general, baptism is understood to be the time where one receives the Holy Spirit, is born into the body of Christ, and receives the Holy Spirit.

That's what we see.

In general, in the New Testament.

Now, this does not mean, hear me very clearly, this does not mean you can't have the Spirit and you can't be saved unless you're baptized.

That's not what it means.

But it does mean that in the natural order of things, union to Christ and receiving the Spirit comes through baptism.

Now, think of a birth.

Think of a birth.

A child is conceived in the womb, they are alive.

They're alive in the womb.

They're receiving the benefits of oxygen in the womb through the mother's blood.

But the time comes when they're born from the womb, and now they're living in the world and breathing air into their own lungs.

There's something, and sometimes they're not born naturally.

Sometimes you need a C-section, and it's an unnatural birth.

It's not the way you'd expect, but they're still born.

Similarly,

Yes, you can be alive, truly alive in Christ by faith before baptism, benefiting from the working of the Spirit, just like the baby benefits from the oxygenation of the mother's

breathing before baptism.

But baptism is presented as the moment of birth, the moment of birth into the life of the church and into the receiving of the Spirit.

That's just what Peter says, isn't it?

Baptized, and you will receive the gift of

Of the Spirit.

So, baptism is presented as the moment we're born into the church in a unique way, and we receive the Spirit in a unique way, even though there are plenty of things, plenty of

times where it doesn't work that neat and clean.

God is not bound by this.

God is not, his hands are not tied.

He gives the spirit and he gives salvation where he will.

But this is the natural way that it's presented to be in Scripture.

Now,

The second thing is, as part of being born into the church, baptism is associated with forgiveness of sins.

And this can make us a little nervous because we say, listen, we're forgiven by faith when we trust Jesus for forgiveness of sins.

That's right, that's right.

But baptism is tied to that.

Baptism is the sign of that.

Baptism is the seal of that.

And again, just what does Peter say there in Acts?

Repent.

Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

So to be baptized, think about what it is.

To be baptized is to be declared you are in Christ.

That's what's being declared by the authority of God upon baptism.

Can you be in Christ by faith apart from baptism?

Yes.

We see that.

Thief on the cross, we always point to the thief on the cross, but that's true.

And God can do that.

Can sins be forgiven by repentance and faith apart from baptism?

Yes.

But baptism divinely declares you are in Christ and your sins are washed away.

And that divine declaration is a gift to God's people.

Why in the world would we say, I'm a Christian, but I don't want to be baptized?

Why in the world would we say, you know, I'm alive in Christ, but I'm not going to.

Be baptized into Christ.

I'm not going to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It's like a baby in the womb that is alive.

Nobody's saying she's not alive, but she's saying, I don't want to be born.

I don't want to come out there.

I'm going to stay in the womb.

No, if you're a Christian, it is right and good and simply obedient to be baptized.

To be baptized.

So if you're trusting Christ, be baptized into Christ and receive baptized.

The fullness of this gift that the Lord has for his people.

It's like a wedding ceremony.

You can get married by filling out a form, getting something mailed to you, and you're like, okay, great, we're married.

Okay, it's possible.

But the wedding ceremony is an anchor in the relationship of the couple.

It's an anchor that they look back to.

They remember the vows, they remember the moment they received the affirmation of their family, and a real change was effected in them through that ceremony.

It's not just nothing.

And so too, Christian, baptism is an anchor in your life where the Spirit declared through the church, you are in Christ.

So go back to remember that.

Remember that.

Hold to that.

You're in Christ.

Your sin is forgiven.

You were baptized, and that means something.

Not because someone in a fancy suit said it might mean something, because the scriptures say it means something.

And as a side note, there is no category in the New Testament.

For someone who is in Christ and is not baptized.

That doesn't mean it's not possible.

Again, we see the thief on the cross.

It just means it's not the norm.

It's not the norm.

So if you are in Christ, if you're trusting Christ, be baptized.

Be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

That's why baptism is included in Ephesians 4 as part of the unity that the Spirit creates.

That's why baptism is in the creed.

As part of what we believe as Christians, because those in the one body of the one Christ by the one spirit have also received the one baptism in the name of the one triune God.

Then let's move then very quickly to conclude, because the creed says the Spirit, the Spirit is God.

Then we confess the one church who is created by the union of that, that Spirit, uniting us around Christ.

Then we confess one baptism, which is the way that spirit is uniquely given to us, and we are birthed into the one body of Christ.

And then it says, I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come.

Why would we move from spirit to church?

I can see that.

The spirit unites the church.

From church to baptism, I can see that because baptism brings us into the church in this unique way.

But why then do we move into resurrection?

Well, what's baptism?

Baptism is this picture of death and resurrection.

Your resurrection hope, the hope of the life to come, is woven into the shape of baptism itself.

Remember what Paul says in Romans six.

Let me read this for you briefly.

In Romans chapter six, Paul writes this, starting in verse three.

He says, Do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Christian, resurrection hope is built into baptism.

Did you go down and come up again?

If you came up again, resurrection is promised to you.

In that rising up motion from the water, we are, we are, we are united to the resurrection of Christ.

And your future hope is encoded into your coming up out of the water.

Into your coming up out of the water again.

We are in Christ.

So this is so critical to get.

You, Christian, are united to Jesus.

That's absolutely everything.

It's not a moral life.

It's not doing better than I did yesterday.

It's not it's that all comes.

What matters the whole thing, the only thing we have to offer, you are united to Christ.

Every good thing, life.

Resurrection, hope, the Spirit, forgiveness, justification, everything pours from.

You are united to him.

And in baptism, you died with him.

You were united to him in his death, such that when you come to the moment of your death, I love that this is true.

You will find Christ is there because you are united to him in his death.

For you, you will die with him and in him.

But he's risen and you will be raised.

That's what the baptism is saying.

That's what this union to him is saying.

We have this hope.

If we've died with him in a death like his, then we've we have been raised with him.

Spiritually, we will be raised with him.

Christian, you will be raised with Jesus Christ.

And and the physical, tangible anchor of that promise that Paul gives us and that the creed gives us is look at your baptism.

You died with him, you've been raised with him.

You have hope, therefore, in him.

Now let me wrap it up here.

We've got we've got about five minutes.

Let me finish this off.

Why does any of this matter?

Is it just, you know, to going over historical stuff, just kind of doing a little bit more theology than we normally do from the pulpit?

It matters because I I I want us as a people to know what we believe, to know what we believe, not like in a fuzzy way, kind of, you know, not really that, but not really that.

To know what we believe.

And yes, it's here in scripture, but this is a lot.

This is a lot to just have off the off the top of your head.

The creed helps us to say, these are the things, these are the core things that I believe that I live from.

That I will die for.

These are the core things.

It's important for us to have that.

And specifically today, it's important for us to know the Holy Spirit is God Himself.

Not just a fuzzy feeling, not just a little conviction in my heart.

The Holy Spirit is the presence of God Himself, and He has been given to you if you're trusting Christ.

He's been given to us as a little congregation.

Out here in the fields.

And what can't you give a master artist a little piece of graphite and he can make a masterpiece?

You give God a little congregation in the cornfields of Ohio and He can do anything He wants.

The Holy Spirit in our midst is what empowers, is what will do the work.

He is the one who will work.

And so we've received the Spirit.

We have.

You have, not just us as in as as a church, you Christian, trust in Christ, baptized into Christ, you have received the Spirit of God to dwell in you, to work in you, to encourage

one another in you.

When you look around after service here, you're seeing people filled with God's presence.

And you're also someone filled with God's presence.

So you can minister the presence of God.

To your neighbor, and you can receive from them the ministry of God.

Go and visit a sick Christian.

You're bringing the presence of God into that room, and you're ministering in some mystery to God Himself.

It is an awesome thing for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That's the reality in which we live, Christian.

To be a Christian is to be united to Christ and so to enter a new world.

We're not just people who try to be moral.

We're not just people who vote a certain way.

We're not just people who don't watch particular movies.

We are those who live in a new reality.

We live in a new reality.

We live in a universe where Christ is the center of all things, where hope is the air that we breathe.

Even as we're gasping in to weep for sorrow, hope is the air that we breathe in this new.

Reality.

We live in a reality where we gather together on Sundays, not as a social club or group of acquaintances, but as the body of God incarnate, filled with the Holy Spirit of God,

ministering in the power of God to one another and to the world around us.

And day in and day out, media, news, entertainment, anxieties, fear, finances, broken bodies.

All of it is telling us you live in a material world.

You live in a world where having fun matters, having the most fun matters, doing the next thing.

You know, it's just this empty, empty, empty world.

And the creed says, no.

The creed militates against that and says, no, you live in a world with Christ at the center, where God has died and raised, where you've been filled with his fullness and

gathered into a body.

that has died with him and is rising with him and will rise with him.

You live in this reality, Christian.

So may we increasingly do that.

Say, I'm not gonna live in the world that the media calls me into.

I'm gonna live in the world I confess in the creed.

So let's say this creed together, and then we'll take the Lord's Supper.

Uh and I think we have it up on the screen.

I think Avery you can bring it up there for us.

And we'll just say these things and then

move straight in to the Lord's Supper together, because what we confess here is really ultimately what we're doing here.

Let's say this together if if if you're able to confess these things as true.

I believe in one God, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages,

Light of light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father, through whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down

from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried.

And he rose on the third day, according to the scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.

His kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the creator of life, who proceeds from the Father, who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who spoke through the

prophets.

In one holy Catholic and apostolic church, I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come.

Amen.

Amen, Father.

Thank you that words like this can help us to express your truth.

Thank you that you are a speaking God.

Bind us, Father, to you.

Bind us to what you have said.

Bind us to the faith as it is in Jesus Christ, the faith of the apostles, the word of the cross, the true deposit of faith, the slain and risen Jesus as Lord.

Bind us, Father, to this as one people.

And as we come now to the table, may we confess, not just with our words, but with our bodies, that we believe this Jesus Christ as Lord, God, Savior, and King.

We pray these things, Father, in his name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio.

To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m.

or visit our website at Kingstreech.org.