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What the Church Believes:  The Apostles’ Creed (Part 2)
Romans 3:22-30a 

     It’s the 2nd week in our study of The Apostles’ Creed.  Christians around the world recite this ancient summary of foundational beliefs; it’s rooted in Scripture and was written by Jesus’ earliest disciples, who were eyewitnesses to most of this.  In the words of author Albert Mohler, “Christians believe more than is contained in the Apostles’ Creed, but none can believe less.” For that reason, it’s regularly used as a confession of faith in most Christian worship services.     
      Today we’re focusing on the person and work of Jesus Christ, beginning with his virgin birth.  Every Advent we hear the account of Mary and Joseph; their son is born in a stable and they name him Jesus, just as an angel of the Lord told them to do.  Here comes the important part: Because he is born of Mary, Jesus is fully human and because he’s conceived by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is fully God.  Some people have wondered if Jesus was half-man and half-divine, sort of a 50-50 split.  That’s not what the Bible says!  Think of it this way: God put on flesh and lived among us.  Theologians call that incarnation. Another way to express this is to say that through the virgin birth, God became man without ceasing to be God! 
      Do you know that Matthew and Luke each wrote a gospel that included the account of the virgin birth? It is undeniably a miracle. These same two gospel writers go on to tell us about another incredible miracle:  the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  If we believe the first miracle – if we trust the virgin birth is true – wouldn’t we also, by faith, believe the truth of the Easter miracle?  On the other hand, if someone denies the virgin birth, scoffing that it’s a made-up tale, how could they have any certainty about Jesus’ resurrection?  Simply put, we need to take it all as trustworthy or reject it all as false; there’s no neutrality, no choosing the parts we like and ignoring the rest. Either we believe what’s contained in the Bible, or we don’t.   
      What immediately follows the announcement of the virgin birth is confusing. Wouldn’t you think Jesus’ teachings, healings or other miracles would be named?  They are not, and I think that was intentional. This creed keeps our focus on salvation - it’s concise - but it also helped fight false teachings. After the virgin birth, we’re told Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. That is very accurate: his punishments were harsh and excessive. 
      What is interesting here is again what is missing. Why is Pilate, a minor Roman governor in Judea, listed? Why not King Herod or Caiaphas, the high priest?  Pilate’s reign was recorded in public records, so it gave historians a verifiable date of Jesus’ death.  But more importantly, Pilate said he believed Jesus was innocent, yet he condemned him to death.  Three times he told the crowd and others that he found no fault in Jesus that would merit the death penalty.  Including Pilate in this early creed did serve a specific purpose: it countered those who blamed Jews for Christ’s death.  That false and provocative claim has long been used to imply Jews were responsible for the Messiah’s death.  Something else that counters that sort of harassment is Jesus’ own words.  He said: “No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own accord.”  Jesus chose the cross.  He who was without sin paid the penalty for our own. His love for you and me held him there.
     The next three words in the creed say Jesus “was crucified, dead, and buried”.  Each is a single word and each is powerful. Someone once said that if you repeated these three words out loud, several times, they would sound like a hammer, nailing the lid of a coffin.  Crucified, dead, and buried. Crucified, dead, and buried. These words are used in all four of the Gospels - that shows us their importance. 
      Especially the word “buried”.  There were skeptics back then, just as there are today. In the early church, Christians had to deal with a group called the Gnostics.  They believed the Spirit of God entered Jesus at his baptism but left before his crucifixion. That meant Jesus didn’t die on the cross.  They could not conceive of that, so they argued with Christians and defended their point of view. 
      Hundreds of years later the prophet Muhammed, founder of the religion of Islam, also said Jesus never really died on the cross.  He just appeared to, so what must also logically be true is that Jesus could not have risen from the dead either.  If you or someone you know has ever doubted that Jesus died, consider these things:  he predicted his death several times to his disciples; after being arrested, he was beaten and scourged, lost blood, and was exhausted.  Being nailed to a cross caused tremendous suffering - Jesus hung there for 6 hours.  He also died out in public, outside the walls of Jerusalem.  He was surrounded by soldiers whose job it was to kill criminals; they knew the difference between a dead man and an unconscious one.  Jesus’ mother was nearby with John; Jewish leaders were watching; plus a crowd of onlookers had come. No one could have faked his death with all those witnesses nearby.  The evidence that Jesus truly died is overwhelming. 
      That matters: it is the crux of the Good News.  It’s what gives us hope, because when Jesus was laid in a tomb, he took our sins in with him. When he was resurrected and walked out, our sins were gone forever. There’s a praise song called “Glorious Day” that says this so well: “Living, he loved me; Dying, he saved me; Buried, he carried my sins away; Rising he justified, freely forever; One day He’s coming, O glorious day!”  That is God’s one plan of salvation - it’s the one way to heaven. It all depends on our One God, who put on flesh and made one sacrifice for all.   
       Next up is the most controversial part of the creed: “Jesus descended into hell”. This exact phrase is not found in Scripture, and it wasn’t added to the creed until 250-300 years after Jesus’ resurrection.  But it has remained there for close to 1,700 years for a specific purpose.  The original authors wanted to be perfectly clear:  Jesus went to the grave - that’s what “hades” means in Greek and what “Sheol” means in Hebrew.  This matters because skeptics have said and still believe to this day that Jesus didn’t die - he wasn’t truly and completely dead. 
        Here’s what has led to confusion: in the Middle Ages it was broadly believed that “descending into hell” meant Jesus went down to a place of flames and darkness, with eternal suffering.  That was taught and preached, and depicted in many pieces of religious art.  But here’s how we know that wasn’t what the authors of the creed meant.  They used the word “hades” meaning grave; they didn’t use the other, lesser-used, Greek word “Gehenna”.  That is a word that refers to a fiery place of suffering.  Can you see how these two words and their meaning could get mixed up?  To proclaim that Jesus descended into hell means we believe he was in a grave, dead.    
      Next week we’ll focus on the resurrection, but today we’ll end with Jesus ascending into heaven and sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  Every one of us will stand before Jesus and give an account of our life.  Nothing will be hidden; it is already known to Him.  You may feel prepared, as much as one can be, to be in that place.  But if this thought makes your heart beat too fast, or your hands sweat, those are signs you’re probably not yet, or not fully, living an obedient, Christ-centered life.  If you’ve avoided thinking about this, now is the time to change that – ignoring it just won’t work.  Do you know that there are over 300 verses in the Bible that say Jesus is coming to earth again?  If you believe the virgin birth and the resurrection from the dead, then the Second Coming and our time of accountability before Jesus must also be trusted.  This is what we believe as Christians.  Amen. 

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