...In one God | We Believe | Rick Atchley

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father of all ages. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, from the same Ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. And we believe for us and for our salvation. He came down from heaven. He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. On the third day he rose again according to the scriptures. We believe he ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son and with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified. He spoke through the prophets. We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sin. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and to life in the world to come. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Welcome to the Hills. Preacher Rick here.

I want to greet our online family, and we have four campuses. So if you're at one of those campuses in Dallas or West Fort Worth or Keller or North Richard Hills, I'm really glad that you are with us too. I hope everyone had an awesome Valentine's Day. And if you have a sweetheart, you got to spend time with them. Now, public service announcement to all men who have sweethearts. Next year, Valentine's Day is on a Sunday, and Chick-fil-A is closed. So you're going to have to get creative, and not only that, but next year, Valentine's Day is on Super Bowl Sunday. So you've got one year to navigate what you plan to do. Let me suggest you go celebrate Valentine's on February the 13th, and you go big, okay? And speaking of going big, that's what we're going to do the next six weeks. We're starting a series today, and I'm going to ask you to do some heavy thinking. We're going to do some serious theological lifting, and I need you to be ready. In fact, I need you to say, we're ready. Okay, here we go. Last November, something truly significant happened. You know, for 1,000 years, there was just one church, and then there was a great schism between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. The Protestants came along a few centuries later. And for hundreds of years, these two great movements of God would not have anything to do with each other. So it was so significant, last November, in this little town in Turkey called Iznik. About 40,000 people, no Christians that we know of. These two great Christian leaders, Pope Leo of the Catholic Church and Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Church, got together and even prayed together. Why there? Well, 2025 was the 1,700-year anniversary of a meeting that took place in that town. But it wasn't called Iznik then, it was called Nicaea. It was a part of a province called Bithynia that Peter mentions in one of his letters.

And they met in a church. This church was underwater for centuries and was recently discovered. This church is only 60 feet by 130 feet. And over 300 bishops from across the empire met in that building to produce what I think is the most important document in Christian history besides the Bible itself, the Nicene Creed. And for 1,700 years, this document has defined Christian faith. It is recited every single Sunday all over the world in all kinds of ways. of churches, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, every tradition imaginable. And it's not because Christians believe in incantations, but because we know we must safeguard and we must pass on the core truths that identify and form our community. And so, for the next six weeks, we're going to do a deep dive into what we believe as Christians. Because to be Christian is not just to believe anything you want, but it is to believe a faith that has been taught and affirmed for 2,000 years. Now I want to get something off the table. Some of you, like me, were perhaps raised in churches that never mentioned creeds. In fact, I was raised in a church that would have said proudly, we have no creed but the Bible. And 50 years ago, if my preacher had stood up and said, we're going to look at the Nicene Creed, I would have bristled and said, we have no creed but the Bible, not realizing there are creeds in the Bible. There really are. There are these songs, these poems, these hymns in the Bible to teach us what we believe, like Philippians 2. It starts, he didn't count equality with God something to be grasped, emptied himself and it ends, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. That was an early creed. And so was the famous Christ hymn in Colossians 1, 15 through 20, 2 Timothy 3, 16 is another one.

And in a moment, I'm going to show you what I think was the earliest creed of the church. Why did they form these creeds? Well, remember, there was no recognized New Testament for over 300 years, and many of your early Christians were illiterate. They could not read. So how do you teach these new Christians what the core truths of the faith are? When you develop these poems or these songs or these creeds, it keeps the truth clarified and purified in an easily memorable way. And I realize now, my church did that for me. Because so many of our songs, much of our hymnody is creedal. So when I'm a boy, even before I can read well, I was singing and memorizing words like all hail the power of Jesus' name, crown Him Lord of all. And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. And Lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight, the cloud be rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. And the church was teaching this young boy the core truths of the faith through our songs. So that's what the church has been doing since Nicaea for 1,700 years. Billions of Christians have been saying these words. And one thing it does is it reminds us our faith is global and historical. The Christian faith transcends cultural and denominational boundaries. Jesus' family is so much bigger than our current experience of it. And one reason that's important is because sometimes people experience church hurt, maybe in their particular congregation or maybe in their denomination. And they say, well, I'm just going to get rid of Jesus. Don't do that. The Jesus movement is so much bigger than your current experience of it. And the church to remain healthy, we need to stay moored and tied to our history and to the riches of our Christian heritage. In fact, for me, warning flags always go up when I hear people espouse teachings that

for centuries the church would never have accepted. You know, there are some recent teachings about the way Jesus is going to return that weren't taught in the church for 1,800 years. Just recently, a very small sliver of the global church, it wants us to redefine what marriage is. And for 1,900 years, the church would not have recognized that teaching. And I don't believe the Holy Spirit today is giving the church revelation that contradicts or strays from what the Holy Spirit had the church teach. for two millennia. Now, this is the power of creeds. They de-center our faith from our particular moment in time and our nationalism and our tribalism, and they re-center our faith on the story of Jesus the church has been telling for 2,000 years. And they do something else. They remind us that our faith is received and not invented. In other words, you can't just believe whatever you want to believe and call yourself a Christian. What we hold as eternally true is not the result of our personal experiences and internal reflection. We're just like the first Christians, Acts 242. We devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching. So, now, let me show you what I think was the very first creed of the church. It shows up in 1 Corinthians. It was written just about 20 to 30 years after Jesus ascended. This is a creed that we know the apostles passed on, okay? So, look at me with me.

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you, notice, which you received and of which you've taken your stand. By this gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you've believed in vain. For what, notice again, for what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance. And here it is. This was the very first song or poem or creed that brand new Christians were taught just after Jesus' resurrection. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Paul said, that's what I received. We know Paul studied under and was encouraged by the apostles. This is what they gave him. This is what he gave the church in Corinth. And he says, this is the gospel that will save you if you hold onto it. You see, we've been given words that we must hold on to. Now, the Christian faith is more than doctrine to be believed. We all know people that are right in their doctrine and they act like jerks, okay? So the Christian faith is more than doctrine to believe,

but it is never less. To be Christian is to affirm and believe certain truths that Jesus gave the apostles to pass on to his church. And every generation is charged to proclaim and protect these doctrines. Paul wrote to his young mentee, Timothy, and he said, watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. He wrote Timothy again, so he thought I better bring it up again. What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Verses like this convict me. James says, not many of you should be teachers because teachers are going to be judged more strictly. I've been given a deposit of truth that I am to guard and to pass on to you. And I'm going to be judged for my faithfulness to that assignment. Paul wrote to Titus. You're putting in elders on Crete. Here's what he said about an elder. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

And let me just say that because of the internet, people have more access to false teaching than at any time in history. So it's critical that we take this baton of faith. The apostles gave it to the next generation who gave it to the next, who gave it to the next, and now they've given it to us. And we must run our race faithfully carrying the baton of the faith. And it's critical that we pass it on to the next generation. That our children and our grandchildren, they need to be given the faith of the global and historical faith. Church, a faith held for centuries by who? By we, the body of Christ. And that faith starts in only one place. So notice how these ancient fathers and leaders of the church all over the world came together and started the creed. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. In other words, the one faith is in one God. And right off the bat, we have jumped into some deep doctrinal water. Let me explain. The Council of Nicaea came together, commissioned by the emperor, at that time, his name was Constantine. And under Constantine, the Christian religion was legalized. And there was a schism growing in the Christian religion. And Constantine knew this could threaten the unity of the empire. So he told all these bishops, you get together and you solve this controversy. And what was it? You ready? How many gods do Christians worship? Now, remember, the Christian faith has Jewish roots. Our Messiah was a Jew. All the apostles were Jews. And they didn't stop being Jews when they started following Jesus. And one thing you know about the Jewish faith, it is uniquely monotheistic. In a world where all the other religions have many gods, these peculiar Jews said, there's just one God. The heart of their faith was

the Shema. They said it every morning. They still do. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And so Christianity sprang from these roots. And the question arose, if God is one, why do Christians call three persons God? Now, that's a good question. And there was a teacher named Arius who started to answer that question. And his teaching was gaining popularity. And here's how he answered it. Jesus is divine, but he's not as divine as the true God. Because the Bible says he was begotten. Well, in his famous words, that means there was once when he was not. Now, God's always been. But God created Jesus and invested him with a little bit of divinity. And think about the implications if that becomes the teaching of the church. And so these bishops got together to deal with what I think is the most mysterious Christian doctrine of all, the doctrine of the Trinity. And here's what they determined, we'll talk more about it next week, that Jesus was God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made. And so next week, I'm going to talk a little bit about why the doctrine of the Trinity is such a blessing to us. But what I'm going to do for the next about three or four minutes is try to explain the inexplainable. And I'm going to try to do my best to help you understand the doctrine of the Trinity, and I really need you to listen well. So say, I'm listening. Okay, here we go. Christianity is monotheistic, just like our Jewish ancestors. We believe in one God. Listen to Paul in Romans. Is God the God of the Jews only? Isn't he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. There is only one God. Christianity affirms there's one God who exists in three persons who are equally God. Three unique persons, father, son, and spirit, all have the same God-ness. Jesus said, John 10, are one. And so, what Scripture teaches is the Godhead is one, but it's not identical. It helps here to know a little bit about the Hebrew language. The Jewish people had two words to say one.

One word communicated an absolute singularity, like I'm standing behind one pulpit, I'm wearing one sweater, I have one ring on my hand, I have one stopped up nose, okay? One. They had another word for one. And that word communicated a collective unity that was in such harmony, you saw it as one. We use it that way when we say we are all of one mind. But the best illustration I can give is from the Bible. See, this is the word that is used every time the Bible says God is one. It's this word. And the first time it's used is in Genesis 2. God makes a woman for the man, and they come together, and the Bible says, for this reason, a man shall leave his father, be joined to his wife, and they will become one flesh. They don't lose their identity. They're still unique people. But God joins them into oneness. This is why God is so disturbed and distraught when people divorce, that divorce is not a separation. Divorce is an amputation. Divorce is ripping something apart that God joined into oneness. So, you see, when we say God is one, we're talking covenantal, not mathematical. Now, granted, there's simply no teaching of the Christian faith harder to teach than the doctrine of the Trinity.

But I don't think it's irrational. I think it's suprarational. In other words, we're finite creatures with finite brains trying to grasp the reality of the infinite. The great scholar Augustine, maybe the smartest man in the history of the church, put it this way. If you can comprehend it, it's not God. And he wrote a book on the Trinity. It's brilliant. And after he wrote it, he's walking on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea in North Africa, and he sees a boy with a bucket pouring water into a hole in the sand. He said, what are you doing? He said, well, I'm going to empty the sea and pour it down this hole. And Augustine chuckled and said, son, the sea is far too big and your hole is far too small. And he went a few steps down the beach, and the Holy Spirit said, Augustine, it's the same way with the Trinity. God is way too big and your brain is way too small. And so we accept in faith a reality that we can begin to fathom and never fully grasp. God is one, and he exists in three persons who have such harmony and such unity and such singleness of will that this one God who lives in three persons is one. And we're going to see in the next few weeks how this God has revealed himself through the Son and through the Spirit. But I want you to notice that the bishops started with

creation, that the first thing to know about this God is he's Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. So what do we believe? What has the church said for 2,000 years about God? Well, number one, we believe nothing is above or beyond him. When we say God is Father, we mean he's the originator. He's the one who had no beginning but is the source of every beginning. God says, my name is I am. Not I was. I have always been. There was never a time when I was not. I just am. It means he's uncaused. He's self-existent. He possesses in himself. Essential and eternal life Moses tried to explain this in Psalm 90 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world from everlasting to everlasting You are God now Because God was before all things before the universe before all creation God can enter into his creation Anytime he chooses any way he chooses consistent with his character This is why Christians believe in miracles Because God can enter his creation and do what he chooses Nothing is above or beyond Him because he went before everything and so old women and virgins can get pregnant

and Seas can part and sicknesses can be healed and Jesus can walk alive out of a tomb. He was put in three days earlier after they killed him The great preacher and scholar Donald Barnhouse was preaching in Philadelphia a lot of college students would come hear him preach He was talking about Scripture says the children of Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years or sandals never wore out in the middle of his sermon a Young man stood up. How can you walk 40 years and your shoes not wear out and the old preacher looked at him and said God And The young man sat down meekly and said oh I understand and the great preacher said compassionately young man No one understands It's good to have great faith in God it's better to have a faith in a great God I Want to have faith like Jeremiah Oh Sovereign Lord you've made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm Nothing is too hard for you Which means then that we don't just believe that nothing is above or beyond him that we leave everything exists through and for him and So when you ask a Christian Where did everything come from the answer is in the beginning God The Hebrew writer said by faith that we understand the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen Was not made out of what was visible. It wasn't here There was nothing God spoke. There was something Some of you are thinking you just made a faith statement. Of course I did Every theory on the existence of the universe starts with a faith statement So, let me ask you which one makes more sense to believe that nothing Produced something out of nothing or to believe that someone

Created everything out of nothing Creation Screams that it was designed Both the microscope and the telescope Give testimony This is not an accident there was a maker and God holds people responsible for what they do with the evidence Paul said in Romans 1 They know the truth about God because he's made it obvious to them Ever since the world was created people have seen the earth and sky through everything God made they can clearly see his invisible Qualities his eternal power and divine nature so they have no excuse For not knowing God Here's the problem design implies a designer right and A maker implies a sovereign and Sovereignty implies submission and This is where unregenerate man says I can't go there Instead of believing that he exists by and for God Rebellious man believes I Will create my own Meaning I will determine my own truth. I will decide my own Reality, I will not look up. I Will look within for the meaning of life And my response or answer or question would be how's that work The sad story of humanity is the idolization of false gods that cannot bear the weight

of our worship. Because man is a worshiper, he is desperately in search of an explanation that would give some sense of purpose to his life. The brilliant scholar and author, David Foster Wallace, gave a commencement address about 20 years ago. And part of that address he said, here's something else that's true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there's actually no such thing as atheism. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And pretty much anything you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you'll never have enough. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you'll always feel ugly and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. Worship power. You will feel weak and afraid and you will need even more power over others to keep fear at bay. Worship your intellect. Being seen as smart and you'll end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. These false gods always betray us. Perhaps that's why a few months later he took his own life. See, every week we're bombarded by false narratives that try to explain life and purpose and truth and virtue from a finite perspective. But we get together. We've been doing this for 2,000 years. And we remind each other that's not what we believe. We believe that we were made by and for the purposes of God. And so we declare the search for meaning and truth begins and ends with God. So most of you have deduced I'm a bit of a nerd and now I'm going to prove it.

Because when I was a young man in high school and college, I loved Star Trek. I was a bit of a Trekkie and my favorite character was Spock. And if you ever watched old episodes, Spock would often hold up his hand like this and say live long and prosper. Do you know where he came up with the idea for this particular way to do his hand? The actor Leonard Nimoy grew up in a Orthodox Jewish synagogue. And the rabbi would stand up every week and hold up his hand in the shape of a W. This is the first letter of the Shema. Israel of Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And whether he meant to or not, each time he did this, he was saying to the audience, do you want a flourishing, prospering life? The search begins and ends with God. Seventeen hundred years ago, a bunch of dedicated Christ followers got together and said, what are we going to teach? What are we going to help people understand? What does it mean to call yourself a Christian? And they concluded, and I believe led by the Holy Spirit, it starts here. We believe in one God. That there's a story behind all our stories that gives purpose and hope to all our stories. And we didn't invent the story. We received it. And it's a story by and about God. And this is the story we believe. And so, I'd like you to stay with me, and we're going to join with billions of Christians through the centuries and say the first part of the Nicene Creed together. And my only objection is this, don't say it if you don't believe it. That would be blasphemous. But if you do believe it. Say it with me. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. Yes, God, this is what we believe. We believe, God, that you exist as Father and Son and Holy Spirit. You are great and you are good. And we look forward in the weeks ahead to being in awe of our new insights about who you are. Because this is your story. And we have been invited to live into it. And we will do it. In the power of the Spirit and in the name of Jesus, amen.