The Apostle's Creed Series #2

"I Believe in God"
Psalm 8:1-9

Someone once said, "Think great thoughts about God. It is only those who think great thoughts about God who will ever attempt great things for God." The writers of our great hymns thought great thoughts about God: Immortal, invisible, God only wise; in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes. Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days; Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise!

The Early Church thought great things about God as well. One of those great thoughts is found in the beginning statement of the Apostle’s Creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth..." This morning as we continue to look at the Apostle’s Creed, we shall see that our belief in God and what we believe about God ultimately determines everything else about our faith. It matters.

In the minds of some people today, the Bible makes a strange omission - it never attempts to prove the existence of God. The writers of Scripture assumed God's existence. They didn’t feel the necessity of proving it because God's reality and actions were so obvious to them that they couldn’t imagine there being any doubt. "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Today, however, things are different. We know more about the world in which we live. Breakthroughs in modern science and medicine have explained so much, answered so many questions, removed the veil of mystery over so many things, and yet... and yet there is still a place for God for all who believe.

I remember as a high school student lying on a fishing pier at Shady Lake with a friend. We looked up at the brilliant stars in the clear night sky and contemplated the worlds beyond. My friend broke the silence and said, "I don't understand how anyone can say there is no God. This is too amazing not to believe that the Lord created it all. It couldn't have just happened." It is what the Psalmist was trying to say: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him? (Ps.8:3-4). A belief in God is basic to our faith, and is reasonable as we simply look at the evidence around us.

I believe in God! Yes, but what do we believe about God? As the early church was forming what we know today as the Apostle’s Creed, they wrestled with this same question. They knew that we can never know everything about God, for God is infinite and we are finite, but as they sifted through the evidence found in scripture, in the world, and in their experience, they came up with three points that for them and the church ever since caught the heart of what we believe about God: God is our Father, He is almighty, and He is the Creator. Let’s look at each one of these statements a little more carefully.

The starting point for our faith is this: I believe in God the Father. Those words offer us a way to understand the personal nature of God and the relationship that he wants to have with each of us. Romans 8:15-16 says, "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children" (8:15,16). When you and I say that we believe God is our heavenly Father, we are using the very word that Jesus used to address God himself. Abba was an intimate term used by little children in ancient Palestine; the closest English word we have today is "daddy."

Before Jesus, no Jew would have ever considered calling God Abba. God was regarded as one who was remote, who sat in the high and holy place and was to be feared. But when Jesus spoke of God as his Father, he cast our relationship to God in an entirely new light, where God moved from the throne and came down to our level, reaching out to us and pulling us into the lap of our heavenly Papa. It is a remarkable picture.

To call God our Father is to remember that God is personal, that He loves us, and that He cares for us. When we pray to God our Father, we are praying as children of God, and we can know with assurance that as his children we are the objects of his affection and constant love. We can know with certainty that in every situation in life, no matter how unusual or adverse, we are his and He is ours, no matter what we do. What a comfort! What an encouragement! "Abba, Father!"

The Apostle’s Creed goes on to say "I believe in God the Father Almighty!" With that additional word we are reminded that God is not just personal, but powerful as well.

"I believe in God the Father..." Just six short words, and yet they have a world of meaning wrapped up in them. They set the tone for the Apostles' Creed, and they embrace all the beauty to be found in belonging to the family of God. No other religion in all the world carries a concept of such an intimate relationship with the living God of the universe. Where else can you turn to find words more tender, more meaningful, more mighty than these simple words, "I believe in God the Father"? Amen.