When Janet and I grew up at Trinity Methodist Church on the south side of Chicago, the congregation recited the Apostles’ Creed each week as part of the church service. After we were married and moved away to Indiana 43 years ago, we attended several churches that recited the Creed on occasion but not as a regular part of worship. However, over the summer, the church we attend has made a habit of reciting the Apostle’s Creed on a weekly basis. But an interesting thing has happened. I have been approached by a number of folks who have asked me to teach on what the Creed actually means.
In order to discuss this, it may be helpful to understand what the Apostles’ Creed actually says. So here it is:
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
The Apostles’ Creed states the core beliefs of the Christian community and predates even the Nicean Creed in 325 A.D. But I have noticed that there are at least two areas in the Creed that people stumble over. The first is the idea that Jesus descended into “hell” after the crucifixion and the use of the word “catholic” for those Christians who aren’t members of the Catholic Church.
People wonder why Jesus would have gone to hell… in fact, could Jesus even go to hell? Well, the theological answer is that it is believed by most mainline denominations that Old Testament people went to “Sheol” or Hades when they died. Since this was before the time of Jesus (and His death) these people didn’t go right to heaven like New Testament believers. They resided in the “holding place” (not to be confused with purgatory) that is “Sheol” or in some versions of the Creed, “hell.”
It is thought that Jesus descended into “hell” as an act of grace for the purpose of delivering those Old Testament believers to heaven. Non-believers were left in Sheol where they will reside until the endtimes when they will most likely be banished eternally to what we in the New Testament consider “hell” – separated from God for all eternity.
So the descent of Jesus was not so he would experience additional suffering beyond the cross but that he would rescue those who believed but had no clear path to heaven prior to the time of Jesus. This makes it much more understandable to those of us who just can’t picture Jesus visiting “hell.”
The second questionable wording, the use of “the holy catholic church” is much easier to understand. Notice that the “c” is a small letter and not a capital “C” – that’s because the word “catholic” means universal and is not a reference to the big “C” Catholic Church. This word “catholic” is something that Christians should be able to get behind. It is the acknowledgment of Jesus as the head of the universal church. Of course, there are Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians and many other non-Catholic Christian denominations. So what the Creed says is that there is a universal church with Jesus as the head and that Christianity, as a whole, believes in this reality.
So the Creed describes the basic beliefs of the Christian faith. The Holy Trinity, Virgin birth, the crucifixion, resurrection, the ascension of Jesus back to His Father in heaven and the eventual judgment in the endtimes are all things that the Bible tells us are real. We also profess a belief in the Holy Spirit, the universal church, the forgiveness of sins, bodily resurrection and life eternal with Jesus in heaven. It also acknowledges the communion of the saints, a reference to all believers, past and present, who share in common salvation in Jesus. This includes deceased Christians as well as those still alive, It affirms one salvation in Jesus that applies to all believers. It is not a reference to the act of communion, commonly referred to as the Last Supper or the Eucharist, which the wording is sometimes confused with. So you can see that the Apostles’ Creed covers all the major points of the Christian faith.
Now there are several denominations that don’t believe in the recitation of creeds. For example, it would be rare to hear the Creed recited in a Baptist Church. Baptists believe in what is called “solo-Scripture” – Scripture alone – so there is no need to repeat something conceived by man when we have the Bible. And there are several word variations depending on where you attend church and the wording a church chooses to use in the responsive recitation of the Apostles’s Creed.
It is thought that the Apostles’ Creed came out of the Old Roman Creed, at first thought to have been created by the apostles with modifications throughout the years and gaining momentum in approximately 180 A.D. The Creed, as we know it, has remained virtually unchanged since 390 A.D. and early Church fathers, including Iranaeus, Tertullian, Novatian, Marcellus, Rufinus, Ambrose, Augustine and others all make reference to elements of the Creed, thought to originally be an outgrowth of the Great Commission in Matthew, 28:19, our verse for tonight. Matthew tells us the words of Jesus, “Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
My encouragement this evening is that Jesus suffered for all of us through a plan developed by God the Father to provide a path back to Him and eternal life – after the Fall in the Garden of Eden. My prayer is that we can all embrace the words of the Great Commission in our spreading of the Good News of Jesus Christ – and that we can embrace the Apostles’ Creed and speak it without hesitation when presented with the opportunity to profess our beliefs in unison with other saints. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…