Good morning, everyone. I can't get this to go
on mute. It is good to be back up here for this
series. I am very excited about it. We are in
another week on our series for the Nicene Creed.
This week is about belief in the Holy Spirit.
Well, obviously, we're dealing with history.
This is like the happiest place I can be in.
But we have spent time really digging into the
meat of what it is that this thing that we've
been a part of, that we have joined a very small
part of it, very small percentage of this large
thing that's been around for 2 ,000 years as
we know it right now. And in our very present
and localized world, it can be very easy to forget
that we're a part of something so big and so
grand and so diverse and so deep that in a world
that is more connected than ever because of social
media, we are also feeling incredibly siloed
and isolated. So it's very easy to forget what
things you're a part of on a grand scale. So
this has been a good review, not only of our
shared history as a global church, but even recognizing
that in the early church, There existed diversity
of thought and experience and ethnicity and nationality.
Those things were quickly knit into the fiber
of... this new way and Christianity spread so
quickly in the first few centuries that it existed
it moved into far corners of the interconnected
world that existed at that time so it's not surprising
that in that amount of time also disagreement
and cultural biases and regional influences affected
the church but like I said development of thought
and theology and experience and points of view
were also a part of it so how the church quickly
became all of us It became something that represented
not just the group in Jerusalem or in the group
in Palestine, but it quickly became the church
that represented every tribe, every tongue, every
nation. And that is an incredible thing to think
about, that that was, like I said, knit into
the fiber of the church right away because of
how fast it spread. What that meant, though,
was we needed a way of common understanding.
We don't all need to think the exact same way,
but we need some common understanding about what
the core of what this thing is that we adhere
to. And so the creeds were designed as a way
of recognizing what the irreducible minimums
were while being explicit on the most important
matters. How do we understand divinity and what
does it mean for our salvation? And at their
core, creeds are... connected with salvation.
As stated in the Nicene Creed, the line, one
of the lines is for us and for our salvation,
Jesus came down from heaven. And so even though
it can feel like we're getting into the reeds
of theology and history and the grammar even,
it was for clarity to get us to the core point,
which is our salvation through Jesus. In brief.
All of its clarifications were at the service
of guarding and amplifying the saving work of
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
So we've spent the last two weeks on two parts
of the Trinity. Now we're going to get to the
third part. That's what I'm trying to say. So
we are at the part of the creed that says, the
Holy Spirit is the Lord, the giver of life, who
proceeds from the Father and the Son and is worshiped
and glorified with the Father and the Son. So
we're going to take a moment to pray here and
then we'll move forward. So Lord, today, will
you reveal yourself to us in new and fresh ways
or in familiar ways that perhaps we have forgotten?
We are asking. for you to enlighten our minds
and open our minds in regards to the Holy Spirit
and what our relationship with the Holy Spirit
looks like in terms of our relationship with
you. How do we relate to that component of the
Trinity and understand it within the history
and scriptural context that we can look at it
in? And so we're asking for your wisdom, your
spirit to speak to us and to guide us in all
truth. We pray this in your name. Amen. Okay,
so I'm going to give a brief overview on the
historical context of all this because it matters.
Jump in. We find ourselves back in the 4th century.
So early 4th century, 306, Constantine becomes
emperor of the Roman Empire. He lived in Rome,
home of the empire. That makes sense. But while
on holiday for his sister's wedding, he thought
he would just do some business with some other
folks and decided, oh, guys, Christianity is
now legal. The era of persecuting all of them
is over. We're moving forward. This is 313. Edict
of Milan. And he's also a believer at this point
now. So Constantine, living in Rome, I should
probably do this. This is the west and this is
the east to you guys. So Constantine, living
in Rome, starts also renovating Byzantium. which
is gonna become the future home of the empire.
So he's doing all these renovations. He's like,
you know what? The empire's kind of in chaos
because of this religious disunity, these arguments
that these folks are having. This seems like
a good place to get everybody together to figure
it out because the empire is kind of in a fragile
state and we gotta figure it out. So this is
325. So as I said, He's now a professed believer.
He's kind of in the culture of this all. He reaches
out to all the bishops. They know it's okay to
come out of the woodwork. It's safe for them.
They all come to Nicaea. They talk about big
things that were happening, like the biggest
one being, is Jesus actually? God? That's kind
of a big question. It hadn't really found a landing
point for everybody yet. We're 300 years past
Jesus's death at this point. And they're like,
do we agree on this? We don't. So they needed
to come to some conclusions. That's really hard
to say. They needed to come to some conclusions.
There existed these statements of faith in the
different regions of the empire. They kind of
were like a little like localized, like the Antioch
church and the Alexandrian diocese and the Jerusalem
one. They all kind of had their like, when you
would get baptized, you would make the statement
of faith. They were basically like, hey, let's
pull together what we are saying. And what do
we, again, what are our irreducible minimums?
What do we agree on? So jump over to 330. Constantine
is like, you know what, Byzantium, you're cool.
I'm going to slap my name on you and call you
Constantinople. We are now here. That is a big
deal because it now becomes the home of the empire.
So, you know, Rome was the it girl. Now it's
Constantinople. Like, how would you feel if you
got your empire taken away from you? So this
is kind of the situation that's going on. Lots
of disagreements, lots of agitation. The church
is kind of figuring itself out. And even though
they did agree in the first council in 325, you
know what? We do say Jesus is in fact the son
of God. We believe that scripture confirms that.
Even though that got agreed on and they exiled
the people who were really divisive, it doesn't
mean that that stuff went away. In fact, it kind
of sprouted new shoots and like grew new branches
in the areas of like. But now the Holy Spirit,
what do we think about that? So the next council
was held in 381 to discuss this point. This was,
even though they had said in the first creed,
yes, we believe in the Holy Spirit, there wasn't
really definition on it. They didn't, they weren't
explicit. They weren't super, super clear. But
listen, 56 years is between those two councils.
That's a long time for that question just to
sort of be hanging out there. In the big picture,
It was unresolved, but in the smaller spaces,
it was getting talked about. So we had these
bishops in these big places, like Alexandria,
a huge center of learning, and they're starting
to really, really deal with this at the local
level. So they start writing letters to each
other, fleshing out this stuff about what do
we feel about the Holy Spirit. So they really
start digging into it with letters and like their
own sort of local writings. Because the divinity
of the Holy Spirit was not broadly clear. So
I'm going to introduce you to some early church
fathers. Let me be clear, there were church mothers
too. Are they written down in everybody's history
books? We know they're not. But they existed
and they were amazing. But I'm going to introduce
you to some key players. So Athanasia. Athanasius
was down in Alexandria in northern Egypt. Like
I said, huge center of learning. He had his pen
pal Serapion down in the south in lower Egypt.
Basil the Great, which is a great name. Basil
the Great, and then his brother, Gregory of Nyssa.
These guys were over in Cappadocia, which is
like central Turkey. And then Gregory of Nazianzus,
which I never say well, and I have to slow down.
But these guys were the ones that were writing
some of the bulk of what we actually have primary
sources still of, that you can go and see what
they were fleshing out in regards to the Holy
Spirit. I think that is super cool. So they were
writing extensively about this and they stood
firmly against the teachings of Arius and took
this topic deeply to heart. Their study of scriptures
and their writings were in direct response to
what is now and was agreed upon in 325, heretical
teaching that stated that the Holy Spirit was,
this was the thinking that Arius had. The Holy
Spirit is a creature, a made being, a created
being. versus existing eternally with God the
Father and Jesus the Son. So the idea that the
Holy Spirit was created and not came forth as
a part of the Trinity, that was the thing that
was really, really causing the biggest problems.
So if the idea is that... The Holy Spirit is
a creature. It is there to do the bidding of
God and Jesus. Does that make sense how that
would make sense to the people who thought that?
That was the idea. And so through this message,
we're going to lean really heavily on the actual
work that these church fathers did as they combed
like thoroughly through the scriptures to see
what, in fact, the scripture said about the Holy
Spirit. And these writings and these people were
incredibly instrumental in what would be discussed
and developed and decided at the council in 381.
Not all of them actually made it there. Some
of them died before that time, but their writings
were so important. The question of the Holy Spirit's
divinity became the key issue of the council.
So the Nicene Councils, 325 and later 381, were...
really important. As we saw, Constantine was
literally worried about the empire having a crisis
of unity, potentially breaking apart. The creed
itself was not actually broadly known across
the empire until the Council of Chalcedon in
451. Guys, that's 125 years after the first council.
This is a long time to not land on a theological
issue, isn't it? But let me tell you, the laboring
was like, That's a real thing. You don't want
to just be quick to land on something important
like this. Bear with me for a moment if I might
offer an illustration. Guys, remember in Lord
of the Rings that the return of the king. Listen,
when Mary and Pippin are taken by Treebeard to
the council of the Ents, the Entmoot. This is
important. After the Ents were like, this is
not our war. And Merry and Pippin were like,
great. But they're going to talk and decide that
it is their war. And then they're going to fight
Sauron and join the fight against Sauron. Do
you guys remember that? This is it. They were
all so excited. And then the Ents, they sway.
You remember the scene? They sway and they hum.
And they sway and they hum for hours. And then
Treebeard, the giant tree, says, I know he's
not a tree for people who are really like Lord
of the Rings people. He is an Ent. They're like.
we have decided. And Mary and Pippin are like,
are we going? And he's like, you're not orcs.
And they're like, oh my gosh. So that's what
all that time was spent on. So listen, 125 years,
you're like, we're not there yet. Like in 56
years, we didn't get it. We're like, it took
forever. So anyway. By 451, they locked in. They
finally locked in. The Holy Spirit is of the
Father and the Son. They did it. They got there,
which may seem silly to us now, but of course,
right, we assume now. Like, isn't that so clear
that the Holy Spirit is one with God the Father
and one with the Son? We assume it is, but listen,
it took a long time because it actually isn't
very clear. Very little, in truth, is actually
said about the origin of the Holy Spirit in the
scriptures. And there were arguments to be made,
and they were worth the time it took to figure
that out. The challenge lay in that the scriptures,
notably the New Testament, where we see much
of the Holy Spirit at work, has much to say about
the mission of the Spirit and the work of the
Spirit, but most of these testimonies apply to
the activity of the Spirit in the world and not
directly addressing the question of the Spirit's
ultimate origin. Do you see why this could be
an issue? And so it certainly wasn't, for example,
as clear as... The origin of Jesus, which is
laid out so nicely in John. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made. Without him
nothing was made that has been made. That's a
very concise origin story. If you needed just
like a pitch, a pitch origin story, that would
be it. Tell me this in less than one minute.
Done. We don't have that with the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit does not have a clear origin story.
And so simply stating belief in the Holy Spirit,
which the first creed did, we believe in the
Holy Spirit. But that wasn't quite enough because
it still left too much room for heresy. So the
question was, what are we professing to believe?
Because here are some of the implications. If
the spirit is, as we said, a creature, if it
is created, then it is subordinate to its creator.
And then you don't have a trinity, you have two.
You have a binatarian God. And the trinity then,
or excuse me, the Holy Spirit is then an errand
runner. out to do the work of those that made
it. But scripture says that the spirit lives
in us. But if it's a created being that isn't
co -equal with God, then it sets up a weird structure
in which the Holy Spirit is sort of the software
we run on, but it isn't actually transforming
us. It's just the program. However, if the spirit
is co -equal with God, one with the Trinity,
then the Spirit requires our full attention and
our full worship and our full adoration. If the
Spirit is co -equal in the Trinity, fully divine
in its nature, then the Spirit living in us is
able and capable to be at work in us, transforming
us into the likeness of Christ. And so it is
certainly broader than that, but I think you
can see that the nature of the Holy Spirit and
the origin of it, matters, right? So it was not
enough, they discovered, to simply say, we believe
in the Holy Spirit. We had to understand what
the source was. So those that wrestled with all
of this, while seeking the kind of clarification
that left no room for unorthodox teaching, they
also didn't want to eliminate the very real and
beautiful mystery that is a part of the reality
of knowing the divine. They did not want to reduce
everything down to being knowable and fully understandable
and graspable to a finite human mind. They wanted
to be true but with care. Facts matter, but we
also don't want to have over -factualizing. We
don't want to try to factualize everything that
the mystery actually is important for. Meaning
that they did not have to scrub the scriptures
clean of wonder and awe that comes with communion
with the divine. So it was a very careful thing
at hand. And so while they sought clarity, they
did not attempt to explain everything. Instead,
understanding that scripture was allowed to hold
mystery. and that it revealed its truth in ways
that weren't always explicit, they saw in the
scriptural revelation a clear link between the
Spirit and the Son and the Father in unique characteristics
that were true to all of them. And that identified
its oneness with God, the Father, and the Son.
So in the letters and the writings of the earlier
mentioned church fathers, three complementary
characteristics or categories emerge that help
give clarity to the position of the Holy Spirit.
So first, what are the titles given? The titles,
according to the Spirit in the New Testament,
align with the titles used for the Father and
the Son, showing the Spirit. to be God, because
the titles are shared. I'm going to use Basil
the Great's own words, and he gives us aids from
his writing. The Spirit shares titles that are
held in common by the Father and the Son. He
receives those titles due to his natural and
intimate relationship with the Father and the
Son. Where else would they come from? So he goes
through the list and then gives references. The
Holy Spirit is called spirit as God is spirit.
John 4, 24, God is spirit and his worshipers
must worship in the spirit and in truth. He goes
on to say, he is called holy as the father is
holy and the son is holy. That's a shared title.
The spirit is holy. For creatures, holiness comes
from outside. For the spirit, if you are one
with the father and the son, holiness fills the
very nature. He is not sanctified, but is sanctifying.
John 14, 26 says, but the advocate, the helper,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in
my name, will teach you all things and will remind
you of everything I have said to you. The title
is holy. He is called good as the Father is good.
The essence of the Spirit embraces the goodness
of the Father. Psalm 143 .10, teach me to do
your will for you are my God. May your good Spirit
lead me on level ground. The title is good. And
he is called upright. The Lord my God is upright
because he is truth and righteousness personified.
Psalm 5110. Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew an upright spirit within my inmost
being. Psalm 9215. So that they may announce
that the Lord our God is righteous and that there
is no iniquity in him. What has been named. Upright
in God and Jesus has also been given to the Spirit.
And he shares the name paraclete or helper with
the only begotten advocate who said, I will ask
the Father and he will send you another helper,
another advocate. John 14, 16, and I will ask
the Father, this is Jesus speaking, I will ask
the Father and he will give you another advocate
who will never leave you. And so names are given
to the Spirit that are in common with the Father
and the Son. Secondly, activities of the Spirit
are shared with the Father and the Son. What
the Spirit does show that the Spirit is God because
only one who is God could do what the Spirit
does. So Athanasius gives us highlights in the
spirit's role in transforming us as conclusive
evidence that the spirit is fully God. Because
only God can create and make new. A created being
cannot create out of nothing. Only the creator
can. So Athanasius' letter to Serapion, if the
Holy Spirit were a made creature, we would have
no participation. God through him. If indeed
we were joined to a creature, we would be strangers
to the divine nature because neither of us can
partake in it. But the fact that we're called
partakers of Christ and partakers of God shows
that the anointing and the seal that is in us
belongs not to the something created, but to
the nature of the Son. through the spirit who
is in him and that joins us to the father because
their natures are all one john said first john
4 13 and god has given us his spirit as proof
that we live in him and he in us so if by participation
in the spirit we are made sharers by participating
in the spirit we are made sharers of the divine
nature I love how he says, we would be insane
to say that the Spirit has a created nature and
not the nature of God. Finally, in the doxologies
we find in the New Testament, to the Father,
to the Son, and to the Spirit together. They
show that the Spirit is truly God. For the Fathers,
the biblical passages that most clearly show
the Spirit's full divinity. are the brief doxologies
that show up in these letters, where the Spirit
is aligned with the Father and the Son. The passage
that stands out comes from the end of Matthew's
Gospel, where Jesus says, you likely all know
this, Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. When we have
our baptisms, we continue on with this tradition.
The sacramental act of baptism is accomplished
in the name, singular, not plural, of the Father
and the Son and of the Spirit. That's important,
that it is one singular name that includes Father,
Son, and Spirit. More than any other biblical
passage, this reference to the single name demonstrates
the equality of the three Trinitarian persons
and shows their co -divinity. We are baptized
not into a created being that is subordinate
to creators, but we are baptized into one God,
the Father, one Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
One baptism, one God. So Paul's prayer at the
close of his second letter to the Corinthians
also witnesses to the equality of the Father,
Son, and the Spirit as worthy of one common adoration.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love
of God and the fellowship of the Spirit be with
you all. 2 Corinthians 13, 14. Grace is referred
to in the Son, love is referred to in the Father,
and fellowship is referred to in the Spirit.
But the three are linked in one closing prayer,
a doxology. And doxologies are not offered to
created beings, are they? We're not looking to
get here when we could get here, right? We want
to be one with the Trinitarian God. And so by
offering this prayer that requests the blessing
of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, Paul
shows that he considers them equally God, though
also clearly distinct in character from one another,
but still one. Gregory of Nazianzus nearly uses
this passage above that I just read as a model
for consideration for how God revealed himself,
then Jesus, then Jesus revealed the Spirit. So
from his orations, he says here, perfection is
actually reached by additions, not by subtractions.
For the matter is this. The Old Testament proclaimed
the Father openly, but the Son more obscurely.
The New Testament manifested the Son fully and
suggested the deity of the Spirit. And now...
The Spirit himself dwells among us and supplies
us with clear demonstration of himself. For it
was not safe when the Godhead of the Father was
not yet acknowledged. Plainly to proclaim the
Son. You can't proclaim the Son until the Godhead
is fully realized. Nor when that of the Son was
not yet received, it made no sense to burden
the listeners further. with the full truth of
the Holy Spirit. And he says, like men loaded
with food beyond their strength or presenting
eyes as yet too weak to bear into the sun's light.
You know when you walk outside and you hit the
sun and you're like, or in the morning you turn
on the light. I love that he uses those illustrations
to say, don't add the Holy Spirit yet to Jesus
until Jesus is fully realized. But then at the
right time, now by greater additions, now we
have the fullness of the spirit. And God revealed
each of those in all the right time. He says
it advances and progresses from glory to glory.
So for this reason, it was, I think that he gradually
came to dwell in the disciples. He says, measuring
himself out to them according to their capacity
to receive them. I love that measuring. I think
about like. Actually, like, scooping out, you
know, measurements. At the beginning of the gospel,
after the passion, after the ascension, making
perfect their powers, being breathed upon and
appearing in fiery tongues. And indeed, it is
little by little that he is declared by Jesus,
as you will learn for yourselves if you will
read more carefully. I love the way he says this.
He says that Jesus offers, I will ask the Father,
he says. He will send you another comforter,
even the spirit of truth. Then he says, and he
says it in order that they might not think that
this is a rival to God or to make comparisons.
But then the next step is he goes on to say he
shall send him, but now he's adding it's in my
name. He's adding a little bit more. And he leaves
out the I will ask, but he keeps the shall send.
You see? He keeps adding a little bit more, introducing
it a little bit more. And then he goes on to
say that with his own dignity on the line, then
shall come the authority of the Spirit. Jesus
himself is acknowledging the authority of the
Spirit finally. And so in these little doses,
the Spirit was offered. And so the council updated
the creeds. After all this combing and combing
and figuring and writing and praying and scripture
study, the council updated the creed. So I want
to show on the first slide a comparison of the
creed from 325 to 381, I think. Is it in there,
Liam? There we are. So look, the first creed
said we believe in the Holy Ghost. The second
one needed to be real explicit. And in the Holy
Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, not a created
being, but a creator himself, who proceeds from
the Father, comes directly from the Father, from
the same being, who with the Father and the Son
together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke
by the prophets. The second time, go to the next
slide. The second time it shows up in the creed.
The original from 325 says, Who for us men and
for our salvation came down. It's talking about
Jesus and was incarnate and was made man. The
second version is, Who for us men and our salvation
came down from heaven and was incarnate. Incarnate
by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and
was made man. Putting the Holy Spirit in the
same language as Jesus so that there would be
no confusion. about the nature of the Spirit.
And so the changes in the parts referring to
the Holy Spirit are some of the most critical
and drastic updates to the Creed. They were in
direct response to the conversations that had
been happening. And that was a pretty big deal.
And so now, if the Holy Spirit is God, then what
must also be true? That the Holy Spirit shares
in the full. lordship of the trinity and is to
be honored and glorified receiving equal worship
as the son and the father the worship of the
one true god alone as in fact the core meaning
of the commandment you shall have no other gods
before me exodus 23 In the long history of Israel,
the plunge into idolatry was a constant temptation,
and the prophets constantly called Israel back
to follow and worship only the Lord, the one
true God. And so, according to the creed, true
worship of the one God means honoring the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit as one Lord, with one
common adoration. And in the context, in the
historical context of forging the Nicene Creed,
of forging, excuse me, the Nicene Creed, where
a group of bishops were teaching that the Spirit
was merely a creature, a created entity at work
for the Father and the Son, this updated statement
expressed in clear, plain, and unambiguous language
that the Spirit was fully God and was equally
worthy to be worshipped in one adoration with
the Father and the Son. That was significant.
It is how we understand Christendom to be true
now, right? This is like the given, but this
was fraught discussion. I'm so grateful for these
early church parents of ours who fought this
fight, as it were, to say that truth is important,
that God, in fact, is one, and it matters. how
we understand it. It matters how we declare it.
It matters how we confess it. And so in closing
today, I want to offer just simply what does
that mean for us? Here we are, a lot of years
later, 1 ,700 years later from this. I want to
encourage you to use the communion time that
we're about to have to ask the Spirit what this
means for you. And to remind yourself, too, that
what is true of Jesus, what is true of God, is
true of the Spirit as well. That the Spirit can
be trusted to speak truth to you and not to lead
you astray. That the Spirit will act in accordance
to what you know to be true about the goodness
of the Father and the goodness of the Son. They
cannot act in opposition to each other. What
is true of the Spirit? that you need to be reminded
of, that you know to be true about God the Father
and God the Son, but have not held close about
the Spirit. So Alex, I'm going to invite you
up. I think you're on communion today. And I
want to invite you all to take some time to consider
the presence of the Holy Spirit as a co -equal
part of the divinity, equally worthy of our recognition
as lordship. As Lord and worthy of full worship.