The Nicene Creed - Week 2 w/Gary Ellis

We are in the Nicene Creed. It is week two, and

it is our special treat to have, I'm going to

call you pastor because you've just always been

a pastor, Pastor Gary Ellis. I'm just really

honored that you're here and that you're going

to be sharing with us. And I know that it's October

and it's Pastor Appreciation Month, and so breakfast

is on me, okay? All right. We'll set up a time

for us to have breakfast. Thank you. Will you

please welcome Gary? Okay. The old guy has got

to get, you know, a special treatment here. Rank

has its privileges, right? It's really good to

be with you today in this way. Interesting to

me how this is a much bigger crowd than it was

last week. And it wasn't so cold last week. But

at any rate, I really appreciate being able to

minister to you today. In the 50 years plus,

or not plus, but a little bit, right around 50

years, one of my absolute favorite things to

do in all of the different ministry opportunities

I had was teaching. And I really enjoyed that.

What I want to do today... is continue what we

started last week with Jen. First, I want to

tell you, though, that even though I have been

in ministry for that as long as I have, and I'm

getting as old as I am, my mind thinks I'm still

29. And the thing is, is that my jokes often

ask me, Are you 12? Or my body. But I found out

something recently. I was at the doctor's office.

And she said, you don't have arthritis. I said,

I don't. She says, no, it's early onset rigor

mortis. Yeah. Have you noticed? Maybe I'm alone

in this. I don't know if construction codes have

changed. But I swear they make floors lower than

they used to. But it's okay because it gives

me more time to plan what I'm going to do while

I'm down there. Which is usually quite a while.

That's why my wife throws down snacks. But at

any rate, seriously, as if I wasn't being already,

we want to continue. with the Nicene Creed today.

Let's have a prayer. Father, thank you for this

opportunity to dig into your word, dig into that

which is important in our faith lives. And I'm

just asking you, Father, that you would quicken

ears, quicken my mind to think the thoughts that

you would have me share, quicken ears to hear

what each individual needs to hear and apply

to their lives. We pray in Jesus' name. All right.

Amen. I'm going to start out, and when you say

the Nicene Creed, some people know what that

is. A lot of people don't know what it is. Some

people have quoted that from a historic church

background. We say Nicene Creed, but we're not

sure what the words are. And so that part that

I want to talk about today is the original, within

the original. that came about in the first offering

of the Council of Nicaea. Now, later on, they

added to it. But the first part that I want to

talk about today, I want to just read to you,

except a paraphrase. Because when you read it

in the sounds like King James English, although

King James didn't come across until the 16th

century, but it's like, okay. What did that just

say? I'm not sure. And if we don't know what

it's saying, how can it become meaningful to

us? So, we believe in one God, the creator and

source of everything, seen and unseen, known

and mysterious. We believe in one Lord, Jesus

Christ, God's Son, born of the Father's own being.

the one and only. He is truly God from true God,

light from light, the same divine nature as the

Father. He wasn't created. He always was. Through

him, everything came into being, everything in

heaven and on earth. For us and for our salvation,

he came down to earth, he took on human flesh.

became fully one of us, and lived among us. He

suffered, died on the third day, and rose again.

He ascended to heaven, and one day he will return

to judge the living and the dead. And that is

the paraphrase of the Nicene Creed that was initially

established in about 325 in Nicaea. Now when

we talk about the Nicene Creed, If you're a history

buff, and you know that that's what we're going

to be talking about, if you're a history buff,

you go, oh, wow, cool. Right, Jen? Cool, we get

to look at those kind of things. Then if you're

one of the less caring about history, more current,

simple, practical, it's like your eyes glaze

over and you go, what difference does it make?

You see why the two minutes for one question?

What difference does it make? See, because the

two things that were of the biggest contest as

they got to Nicaea and the council of 300 some

theologians and bishops were answering was who

was Jesus? One side of the question was he was

created by God. He was a special creation by

God. but he was not God himself. The other side

said he is fully God, and he is fully man at

the same time. Now, have you ever tried to think

about that? What does it mean to be fully God

and fully man? I have. Even though my brain feels

like it's 29 years old, I try to think about

that. I try to put that into practical terms

in my mind, and I start smelling bacon frying.

It's hard to get your head around. It's a mystery.

I think it is something we'll understand one

day on the other side. But our minds are not

really designed to be able to delineate what

does that mean right now. It's one of those mysteries

that we take by faith. You see, part of the problem

was with a man named Barius. And he was one that

was saying, I'm really logical. I'm really influenced

by logic. And therefore, it is not logical that

God would be divided in two. It is not logical

that Jesus wasn't a creation. As a matter of

fact, one of the things that he might have thought

about was that Jesus himself referred to himself

as the Son of Man 80 plus times. He referred

to himself as the Son of God twice. Why? I'll

let you noodle over that. What difference does

it make? Why would Jesus himself refer to himself

as the Son of Man? We're going to get to that

question. Rather than the Son of God. Although,

in fact, he did reference things from the Old

Testament scriptures that referenced him. It

meant it was called Son of Man, but the Son of

Man that came in the clouds and was eternal.

Now, he did not refer to himself as the Son of

God in front of the common man, everyday person.

It was always in front of the religious leaders

because he was referring back to what they should

have known about, that he, in fact, was divine.

As far as everybody around him, his disciples,

he wanted to be really relatable. He wanted them

to know that he absolutely understood them. He

was identified with them. As a matter of fact,

son of man literally means one of you. He was

also always saying, I'm one of you. I understand

you. So what difference does that make? By the

way, you're still with me? You're still here,

right? Okay. Let's jump back on our time machine

just for a few minutes and jump back to 300 A

.D. or C .E., whichever you want to call it,

and find out what it was like where the contention,

the fight actually began that ended up being

convened in Nicaea. And by the way, you know,

it took those who were coming up from Alexandria,

Egypt, took the bishops that came up and so forth

a month at least walking. Some people only had

to come for a couple of days. A lot of them came

from a long, long way. But at any rate, in Alexandria,

Egypt, at the time, see, when we think back to

those days, how many of you think in terms of...

Well, I can't really relate to that. It's probably

really, like somebody said about China recently,

just a bunch of peasants. You'll have to know

who said that when they said it. But China is

anything but peasants. And Nicaea, or rather

Alexandria, was anything but poor country bumpkins.

Alexandria was one of the largest cities in the

world. It had one of the largest seaports, one

of the largest trading routes. Alexandria was

a half a million people. It wasn't just a little

village. It was a half a million people. That

was one of the three largest cities in the world

at that time. So Alexandria was part of the Roman

Empire and one of the largest of the world's

cities. And it was a very busy, busy city with

traders and scholars and mystics and philosophers

and inventors. And by the way, guess what was

invented in Alexandria at that time? Cement.

They invented cement. Part of it was because

they were constructing the Roman throne. The

Roman road. But they invented cement for paved

roads. They invented glass windows. They invented

advanced surgical instruments. They invented

locks and keys. They invented the codex system

in libraries. In other words, their huge, huge

library was made up of scrolls. And what they

did was design them into a codex system where

they turned the scrolls into books, like we have

in our modern libraries today. That started a

long, long time ago. There are so many things

that were actually very, very old. The steam

engine was part of it. Back at that time, it

was kind of a toy. But then a few hundred years

later, they took the same principle. and created

the steam engine that could do work. So many

things came out of Alexandria. A great influence

on Christianity and even the divide in Christianity

came out of Alexandria. And regardless of all

of the religious systems, until Roman Emperor

Constantine, Christianity was illegal. And it

was brutally persecuted. They met in homes and

private locations. Oh, by the way, and there

was a huge Jewish community there too. They weren't

illegal. Christianity was illegal, severely persecuted.

And so they were very, very careful. But the

thing is, 15 to 20 % of Alexandria, one of the

largest cities in the world, Christianity was

15 to 20 % of the city. How did they do that

under persecution? Now let me tell you right

now, I don't want to be persecuted like they

were. And I don't know that we would be persecuted,

but persecution looks like a lot of different

things. And I think that we are going into some

of those kinds of things in some communities.

Greg just talked about it before. We're going

into a time where it's nothing like it's ever

been before. But here's the thing. What is common

in church history is that revivals always follow

dark times. In fact, I heard somebody say recently,

the church has been praying for revival. God

took them seriously. He's allowing persecution

to open that up. And why does persecution open

up revival? And a huge amount of church growth.

We see that today. China. Church growth. Underground

church. Tremendous persecution. Tremendous growth.

Why? It's because people are forced to focus

themselves and decide what they believe rather

than being Sunday going to meet and Christians.

What do I actually believe? Now, do I believe

that if I don't have any food in my cupboards

that God will still provide? Who am I serving?

Who is at the root of my faith rather than my

preferred doctrinal statements? And that's what

persecution did. It caused them to focus down

and the people go beyond philosophy. There was

still a lot of philosophy in Alexandria. There

was a lot of arguing going on, even among the

Christian community. But Alexandria was also

expanding, and the Christian world was expanding

because it was illegal. And it caused people

to make choices that they would not have made

otherwise in defining what faith was to them.

Are you still with me? By the way, Christianity

was growing globally, but it was in Alexandria

where the debates and heresies took root and

spread because it was the atmosphere of Alexandria.

And so it's not really surprising that Alexandria

was like the intellectual crosswords of the ancient

world. It was a city where ideas... didn't just

mingle, they collided. Rationalism versus mystery.

It was part of the atmosphere. You couldn't walk

down the street without overhearing arguments

going on, some of which got very violent. It

was part of the atmosphere. You really realize

we are affected by the atmosphere we live in.

And they were affected by it. And even, although

it wasn't polite conversation, It was fierce,

passionate, often divisive. Ideas were weapons

and words were duels. And that was the atmosphere

that the Christian church was growing up in.

Like cracks of thunder and lightning, they rolled

around the Christian world. Because that was

what they were used to. That was... what they

decided they would do to try to win arguments

rather than live out of faith and let their faith

speak for them. It spilled over into the growing

church. It's interesting that two of the religious

leaders of the same Alexandrian church community,

it was two of those leaders who brought them

to a flashpoint. It would be sort of like saying,

Jen and Greg got into religious fights with each

other. They were part, Arius and Alexander were

part of the same community that was persecuted,

who had to be very careful about what they talked

about in public and not be seen as Christian.

But whenever they would get together, In the

same meetings, there would be huge disputes between

the two. I think it's fascinating that it would

be the Christians themselves among the Christian

leaders themselves that caused the division.

As a matter of fact, that's why I think that

Jesus was harsh with the religious leaders. Be

careful what you read in the New Testament and

apply to yourselves. There are places that you

read some very critical words that Jesus is saying.

You need to know the context of those words.

They cannot be applied to you as a regular disciple

of Christ. He was talking to religious leaders

because the religious leaders were causing a

great weight on the people and with their fighting.

and so forth. So therefore, Constantine convened

the council so that they could decide what Christian

orthodoxy was. I don't think he cared about correct

theology, really, Greg. He was concerned about

the unity of his Roman Empire. And it was really

splintering because Christianity, once he made

it legal, was very forefront. And it was very

splintered. And now he had to do something to

bring it back together because they were going

to destroy his empire. So he didn't really care

about the theology. However, the council, although

it had its own duels and contention, Came up

with the uniform code of authentic Christian

belief, you might say. A faith that you could

hang your hat on. But here's an important stipulation.

The one who breathed galaxies into being cannot

be squeezed into a statement of faith. No matter

how accurate. So we cannot take the Nicene Creed

and cram God into that statement of faith. It's

like... Well, trying to pour the ocean into a

mason jar. God is much larger than statements

of faith. That's where he becomes, you have to

start with a good statement of faith because

it needs to be a solid foundation it grows on.

But a statement of faith grows and becomes important

in a person's life when they begin living it

out rather than just quoting. doctrinal statements

or saying, well, this is what I believe. Because

they had to do more than say the words of the

Nicene Creed that Jesus was fully God and fully

man and know what that meant and live that out

and not just quote it on church gatherings because

it was part of what they did. See, our faith

becomes enriched by how we live with it. how

we demonstrate it. It grows in how we live. The

primary issue with the Nicene Creed is who was

Jesus? Was he a created being? Was Jesus truly

God and just one of God's first and greatest

creations? It makes a difference. And I'm going

to illustrate. And very quickly now, what that

difference it makes. Or, how could Jesus be fully

God and fully human? It makes a difference. The

goal was to affirm real humanity without losing

real divinity. Here's the plot twist. I mentioned

it already. He referred to himself as the Son

of Man 80 times, the Son of God twice. But the

thing was, it was to become relatable. He really

wanted to be relatable. That's what we do on

Tuesday nights at The Chosen because that was

The Chosen's film, its purpose on the fourth

Tuesday night. Shameless plug there. It's coming

up Tuesday night. But the point is, we're learning,

they're learning, we're all learning and need

to learn to make it relatable. We make it relatable

to other people. Jesus made himself relatable

to us. We make ourselves, on a solid foundation,

relatable to other people. The Son of God, when

you just think about it in human terms, it seems

to create distance. He's a non -touchable authority

on a heavenly throne that's distant and watching

us, but is not... invading our lives and working

within our lives. So, he did say to the religious

authorities that he was the Son of God, but it

emphasized that he was being touchable to every

disciple. 1 John 1 .1 says, That which was from

the beginning, which we have heard, which we

have seen with our eyes, which we have looked

upon, which our hands have handled, concerning

the word of life. And why did he write that?

It's because he was combating a Gnostic heresy

at the time. Because what they were saying was

that Jesus looked like a man, but he wasn't really.

And that made a difference. It made a big difference.

That was part of the argument at the time. But

John was saying, no. We heard him. We saw him.

We touched him. He wasn't pretending. I believe

that that's where God wants to be. Jesus wants

to be in our lives. That we can hear him. That

we can touch him. That he is relatable to us.

That he's not just a religious doctrine of belief.

Now, here's what it really matters. If Jesus

was fully human, that part of it, he understands

our weakness. He knows what it feels like to

be tired, to be tempted, to be misunderstood.

You never have to fake faith and strength in

prayer. He gets it. A lot of people start feeling

guilt. I've been there. If they are not making

faith statements all of the time and they can't

open up and be honest with God and tell him how

they really feel, then somehow he is disappointed

in them and saying, why have you lost your faith?

He isn't. We can be open and honest. God is not

challenged by our doubts and he's not afraid

of them. Because of Jesus being fully human,

he totally understands and was touched by everything

you will ever, ever experience. If he was fully

human, he felt real pain. He felt real loss.

He wept. He bled. He grieved. He suffered injustice.

And when our lives hurt, We're not alone. God

knows that ache from the inside. Have you ever

felt when you're under pressure that maybe God

doesn't care? He's on the throne watching you.

But does he really care? Is he really here? In

Jesus, he showed that he really is there. He

really does care. It shows us that what love

looks like in flesh and blood. Compassion. wasn't

abstract to him. He touched lepers. He fed crowds

that were hungry. See, what difference does it

make? Because when we start to really believe

that, then that's a faith, a practical faith

that grows inside of us. When we are hurt and

frustrated and suffering and confused, Jesus

understands that. Because if he wasn't fully

human, he could not really relate to you. Yes,

he's almighty, but he couldn't relate. Melissa,

he totally relates to you in everything you experience.

As a matter of fact, I'm not saying that Jesus

had cancer, but he understood it and fully related

to you in it, as well as fully relating. In him

being the healer in your life and in your body.

See, he fully, each one of us, he fully relates

to us. There isn't anything about your life that

he doesn't relate to. What good news is that?

See, we've reduced Jesus to where we get to go

after we die. Instead of realizing an important

part. of who he was, was our Savior in this life

because he understood and was touched with everything

that we have been touched by. He modeled obedience

under pressure. He wrestled in Gethsemane, yet

he chose your will, not mine. We struggle with

faith, don't we? He understands the struggling.

We struggle with obedience. Man, I know that's

the right thing, but it's a tough thing to swallow.

I don't know if I will or not. He struggled.

He did. It says, Lord, can you take this cup

away? I don't want it. That was Jesus that said

that. He understands what it feels like to be

disobedient. He didn't disobey, but he knows

what it feels like. So stop feeling condemned

about it. You do not need to feel to be condemned

about your weakness. Jesus is not put off by

it. He understands it. Why it fully matters that

Jesus was fully God? Because his love carries

divine authority. See, one of the most frustrating

thing is if you have a compassionate love but

have no power. divinely to do anything about

it. Jesus not only had compassion, he had divine

authority to do something about the compassion

he had. And he does in your life. His sacrifice

has eternal weight because he was fully God.

A merely human death can inspire, but God's self

-giving love transforms us. Because he understood

the cross. You're not just moved by the cross.

You're made new by it. Because he was fully God.

On the cross. He reveals God's heart perfectly.

If you've seen me, Jesus said, you've seen the

Father. Well, what about all those spaces where

Jesus looks like he's real? I mean, God looks

like he's anything but love. He committed genocide

in the Old Testament. Did he? There's some things

that have to be reexamined. What we have to understand

is that Jesus was the perfect image of God because

he himself was God. You don't have to wonder

what God is like. Look at Jesus. He has power

to heal and destroy. It's one thing to believe

that we can be healed. and that Jesus was touched

in infirmity, but he has to be able to do something

about it. That's what difference it makes. He

was fully relatable, but he could also do something

about it. Let me say that one more time. You're

with me? He was fully relatable, but he had the

ability to do something about it. He has the

ability to transform your weakness and my weakness

into strength. He's not put off by it. He's not

disappointed in you. But he's offering himself

to you as one who understood but now can transform

you. Just being human did not give him the power

to transform you. But because he's alive in you,

he's got the power to transform. He rules with

justice and mercy. Mercy as kingdom isn't a metaphor.

It's the reign of divine love that's breaking

in upon us. So, as God and man united, he reopened

the way to intimacy with God. Every prayer, every

breath, every moment can become a literal, real

communion with God. So the bottom line, the Council

of Nicaea wasn't just an ancient argument about

words. It was a fight for the very heartbeat

of our faith. Those early believers weren't trying

to win debates. They were trying to protect the

truth that makes Christianity what it is today.

Jesus became one of us so he could bring us back

to himself. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you are Emmanuel,

God with us. Not distant, not unreachable. You

stepped into our skin. You felt our pain. And

you showed us what love looks like when it bleeds

and forgives. You carried heaven into our everyday

world. And now heaven lives in us, Lord. We praise

you because you are more than we can comprehend,

yet close enough to touch in the places in our

lives that hurt, are stressed, are frustrated,

and confused. You are strength in times of weakness,

in light in the times of our darkness, and we

praise you, Lord. Teach us to live as people.

who know you've walked this road before us. Help

us to see your image in each face around us,

your grace in every moment, and your hope even

in the hardest days that lie ahead. You are our

Savior. You are our friend. You are our creator

and our companion. To you, fully God, fully human,

be all the glory forever and ever.