The Nicene Creed - Week 4 w/Pastor Gregg

If we've never met, my name is Greg Hampton.

I'm one of the pastors here at the house, and

I would love to meet you, buy you a coffee or

a soda or something like that, hear your story.

I like to talk about Jesus. We'd love to hear

your background, how you ended up here at the

house, and if there's any way that we can help

or serve you. And we are in a series called the

Nicene Creed. This series... I mean, the pastor

joke is that this series has been 1 ,600 years

in the making. Because... But here's the deal.

A couple weeks back, Gary got up here and preached,

and he gave some pastor jokes, and y 'all laughed

at him. Y 'all laughed. So when I give pastor

jokes, I expect you give me what you gave Gary.

Exactly. So some would say this series has been

1 ,600 years in the making. There, see? Don't

you feel better? Don't you feel better laughing?

All right, finish this phrase for me. What goes

up must... come down. Today's section of the

Nicene Creed is the what goes up must come down

section. It says he ascended into heaven and

is seated at the right hand of the Father. He

will come again in glory to judge the living

and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

He ascended and he will return. What goes up

must come down. And any of us who call ourselves

Christians, our beliefs about Jesus don't stop

with his ministry. The beliefs that we have about

Jesus don't stop with his resurrection. The beliefs

that we have about Jesus do not stop with his

ascension. Our beliefs about Jesus continue and

extend into the future. The creed reminds us

that we don't just believe in what Jesus is.

did, we believe in what Jesus will someday do.

And that belief is meant to shape how we live

with that hope in the meantime. All right, so

let's open our Bibles and see where that takes

us. We're going to be in the book of Acts. It

goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans.

So if you see any of those, you know you're in

the right neighborhood. There's Bibles on the

tables. There's also Bibles in the lobby. You're

welcome to take one of those home if you don't

have one. Otherwise, the U version, there's tons

of versions of the Bible that are on digital

app stores. And we have a tradition of giving

the scriptures our full attention when read in

the context of a sermon. And you can do that

any way that you're most comfortable with. But

if you'd like to stand with me, you're also welcome

to do that. Acts chapter 1, starting in verse

Acts 1 · chapter mention

6. So when they had come together, they asked

him, Lord, is this the time when you will restore

the kingdom to Israel? He replied, it is not

for you to know the times or periods that the

Father has set by his own authority, but you

will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come

upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem

and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.

When he had said this, as they were watching,

he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of

their sight. While he was going, and they were

gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in

white robes stood by them. They said, Men of

Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?

This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into

heaven, will come in the same way as you saw

him go into heaven. Let us pray. God of every

tongue, every tribe, every color, every nation,

we thank you that the scriptures have persisted

throughout the millennia. That we still have

them to read, to consider, to learn from. And

whatever you have to teach us today, I pray that

it would stick. That it would become a part of

the framework of our faith. As our faith becomes

stronger, as we become more like your son, Jesus.

Amen. You may have a seat. What goes up has promised

to come back. Now, some people get a little hung

up on what that return means or what that return

will look like. But outside of the apocalyptic

vision from John in the book of Revelation, we

don't have all that many passages that tell us

what it would look like or even speak to it directly.

We have the angel saying that he will return

the same way that he left. We have Paul mentioning

being caught up in the clouds. And we have Jesus

saying that only the Father knows when this...

might happen. So, will he descend? The angel

said, he'll descend, he'll come back the same

way he left. Does that mean that he'll descend

on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem? Does it

mean that he'll come down on a literal cloud?

Does it mean that faithful followers of his will

be standing around watching and see it happen?

We do not know the specifics. And even though

the scriptures say that every eye will see this

happen, we do not know if that is literal or

figurative. Is it physical? Is it spiritual?

Because if he descends onto the Mount of Olives

the same exact way that he left, I don't know

if you noticed or not, but we here in this room

cannot see the Mount of Olives from here. And

I think that our eyes would be counted in the

context of every eye. We'll see. Of course, I

suppose someone could be standing there live

streaming it, and therefore everyone could see

it all at once. Or will every part of the world

just miraculously see him at once because his

presence will be omnipresent? But then when you

read the scriptures about him coming back, he

will come back with a bodily form. And we think,

oh, well, a bodily form exists in one place in

one time. See, the creed doesn't try to explain

all the details. The creed is trying to remind

us that we don't only have past beliefs about

Jesus, but that we have a future hope of his

return. Of course, that hope can be clouded by

our definition of terms. The creed says that

he will return to do what? To judge the living

and the dead. Maybe the concept of judgment makes

some of us nervous. Because we hear judgment,

we think of Judge Judy. She's kind of harsh.

Y 'all, you know this. There's a TikTok trend

right now. I don't watch TikTok. I'm old, so

I see the TikTok videos after they made it to

Instagram and then finally made it to Facebook.

Thanks. You're keeping up that Gary energy. I

appreciate that. There's this new trend where

people will like be in really bad lighting so

their face is really stark and they're mouthing

the words to Judge Judy. And it's really funny.

It's really, really funny because she's so, she's

just poking people as hard as she possibly can.

When we hear judgment, we think of things like

that. We think of punishment. We think of things

like prison. But listen to what the theologian

N .T. Wright. has to say about this. He says,

the word judgment carries negative overtones

for many people in our world, but the ancient

Jews and the early Christians saw God's judgment

as a wonderful thing, something to be celebrated,

longed for, yearned over. It meant that the one

true God would set the world right, would straighten

it out, would bring justice and peace once. And

for all. I remember when I was a kid, I don't

remember how old I was, maybe my dad could tell

me, because my dad took us on a trip to go to

a Cubs game in Chicago. And back in those days,

we had a 1982 Buick LeSabre. And we were on the

highways and we hit one of these exits where

it was like one of those long... slow right turns

that got you onto the next highway. And I remember

my dad driving and he goes, hey, watch this.

And he let go of the wheel while we were on the

ramp. And it just stayed on the ramp. Because

the alignment was so bad on this Buick at that

time. That he knew he could let go and it would

just keep curving to the right. Biblical judgment

is a mechanic fixing the alignment on an 82 Buick.

It's putting on new tires if they've been worn

down from the alignment being bad. It's fixing

the suspension if the tires won't sit level anymore.

It's making... that Buick like it just rolled

off the line. Judgment is making what has gone

wrong right. And if that is how you learn to

think about judgment, first of all, you'll see

that almost nothing we call justice or judgment

today lives up to that kind of judgment. And

then, If you go back and you read the Gospels

and you look at the way that Jesus taught, the

way that he healed and confronted and forgave,

he was already setting things right. He said,

you have heard it said, but I say. He was judging

what was broken and working to restore it to

what it was meant. Judgment is not something

to fear. Judgment is something to eagerly await.

Now, another important part about studying something

like the creed is admitting that the creed is

not Talking about things that we know. The creed

is talking about things that we believe. See,

the creed... Anyone sitting in this room has

been brought up in a very modern environment

where you need to know things for sure. Facts

must be facts. They must be provable. The creed

isn't a statement of facts, though. The creed

isn't telling us what we... No, the creed is

reminding us of what we believe. And there was

great wisdom in the framers and authors of the

creed to choose to have a statement that says,

I believe, instead of saying, I know. It doesn't

say, I know that God the Father is creator of

heaven and earth. It says, I believe in God the

Father, creator of heaven and earth. Glenn Packham

said this about the creed. and belief. It doesn't

say, I know. It says, I believe. And I believe

requires a posture of humility. It's not subjectivity

and it's not certainty. It's the humility of

saying, I believe. He goes on and he says, when

Jesus says in the gospels that you have to have

faith of a child, he's not talking about naivete.

The faith of a child is not naivete. It is humility.

So when we say the words of the creed, we say

them with humility. We are entering the great

mystery of the faith. We're saying that I cannot

define you, but I can confess you. It reminds

me of a quote from another author, Madeline L

'Engle. You probably know her from A Wrinkle

in Time. But in a book called The Rock That Is

Higher, she said, Faith is for the part of the

story that superficially isn't believable. Virgin

births, miracles, resurrections, it's unrealistic.

That's childish. Or is it maybe not so much childish

as child -hearted? The framers of the creed were

wise enough to piece together ideas that answered

the heresies of their day, and they were humble

enough. Childlike enough to say we do not know,

but we believe. And the difference matters. Because

reason tells me that there is no such thing as

a kingdom that can have no end. Every kingdom

on earth has fallen, yes? Every kingdom, every

empire on earth. that currently will not have

the level of power that it has had. Egypt, Babylon,

Rome, Britain, by some measures, America is already

failing. Empires are like milk. They have an

expiration date. Milk is good until it's not.

Because when it turns, it turns. Reason. Facts

alone, logic, they all tell me that Jesus will

not return. Because it's been 2 ,000 years, and

the people that wrote these scriptures thought

Jesus was coming back in their lifetime. Reason

alone, logic alone, leads me to believe something

else. And even if Jesus does return, history

has proved to me that there is no such thing

as a kingdom that has no end. It is faith that

tells me that Jesus will make all things new.

It is faith that tells me that Jesus will set

all things right. It is faith that tells me that

the goodness of his kingdom will have no end.

It is faith that tells me that what goes up will

come back down. So what do we do with that? Well,

first of all, we don't stare at the sky waiting

for the clouds to open. And we don't sit around

waiting to die and go to heaven. Again, N .T.

Wright said, the good news is not that we get

to go to heaven when we die, but that heaven's

rule has begun on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus

taught his disciples something really important

that we've been praying at the end of every service

for the last couple of months. He said, your

will be done on earth as it is in heaven. They

were meant to act out in the world what they

believed was the reality of heaven. Immediately.

They were not supposed to sit on their hands

and wait for Jesus' return so that he could do

all the work. They were meant to act out what

they believed that future reality would be. And

what that future reality is currently presently

being now in heaven. And so we, we are meant

to live the kingdom that is already beginning.

That is already broken in. With a child being

born in a lowly, humble manger. So every act

of mercy, every hand that we hold, every injustice

confronted, every wrong made right, every table

flipped and every table set to feed the hungry,

these are the signs that the kingdom has already

broken in. They are the signs that we are approaching

the day that Jesus will make all things right.

There are different eschatological concepts.

Eschatology is the theological structure of end

times. Some people believe that it all has to

get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse

before Jesus comes back. I'm in the camp where

Jesus is telling us we're supposed to be trying

to make it better. How about when he returns,

he has less work to do? That we act out what

we believe. That we, when we pray, thy kingdom

come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That we mean it. Because if we believe that Jesus

will return, that should and that will shape

how we live with that hope. every day until we

see him. Amen? Let us pray. Jesus, we eagerly

await your return. There are days where I see

what is happening in the world and the only words

I have are, come Lord Jesus, come. Your Holy

Spirit reminds us. That those are the moments

that you are asking us to act, to care, to hold

hands, to set tables. Amen.