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.