The apostles' creed ii

The Apostles’ Creed II
I Believe In
God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth

Abbey of St. Boniface, Munich, Germany.

Samuel Ong/W-Hope/23.9.12

Jesus did many other miraculous signs, in the
presence of his disciples, which are not recorded
in this book. But these are written *that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and **that by believing ***you may have life in his
name. John 20:30, 31.


I. I BELIEVE …

HEAD: To believe is to inform the mind that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God.
HEART: To believe is to be drawn into a living and
vital relationship with Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
HANDS & FEET: To believe is to be transformed as
persons - from darkness to light, death to life,
emptiness to fullness – to reflect and live out in ever
greater measure the glory and image of God.
True-blooded Christian belief is FULL-BODIED - one
that engages the head, heart, hands and feet or it is
nothing.


II. I Believe in GOD

When the Creed speaks of God, it means “the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. 1 Pet.
1:3.

God simply is.
“In the beginning God”. Gen. 1:1.
“I AM WHO I AM (I WILL BE WHO I WILL
BE)”, Ex. 3:14.
“God requires nothing to supplement his being.
He is his own cause, He is his own reason. He is
his own wisdom. He is his own activity. He is
maximally perfect, so there can be no possible
way for God to improve himself.”
(Coleman, 2011).

III. I Believe in GOD –
the FATHER Almighty
There is only one God.
„Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one”, Deut.
6:4; Mark 12:29.
“There is one God and Father of all, who is over all and through
all and in all.” Eph. 4:6.

God is One, yet a complex unity.
Then God said, “Let US make human beings in OUR image, in
OUR likeness” … So God created human beings in HIS own
image, in the God he created them …, Gen. 1:26, 27

Apostles’ Creed: I Believe in …
God the Father
Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
The Holy Spirit


The Trinity – An Inexplicable Reality

God in his universal relations as the Father,
unveiling himself as the Son, and in operation as
the Spirit.
God beyond us as the Father, among us as the
Son, and within us as the Spirit.
Electricity: Father (dynamo), Son (wire), Spirit
(power)
Isosceles triangle
Sun (Father), light (Son), warmth (Spirit)
Water – ice, liquid, vapor.

I Believe in GOD –
the FATHER Almighty
He is creator and provider
“Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came
and for whom we live.” 1 Cor. 8:6.

He shows his love and compassion
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”
Hosea 11:1.

He exercises his providence and care
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy
dwelling.” Psalm 68:5.

He disciplines and corrects
“Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD
your God disciplines you.” Deut. 8:5

He adopts believers into his family
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave
the right to become children of God.” John 1:12.


GOD as Mother

Problems with the image of God as father
Our human fathers - absent, abusive, uncaring …

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and
have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”
Isaiah 49:15

“As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort
you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”
Isaiah 66:13.


Implications of the Fatherhood of God

Character: Children are to produce the Father’s
likeness.
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.” Matt. 5:28.

Unity: One Father means one family.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit
through the bond of peace. There is one body and one
Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you
were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
God and father of all, who is over all and through all
and in all.” Eph. 4:3-6.

Status: Believers are related to Jesus Christ.
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is
my brother and sister and mother.” Matt. 12:50.


Implications of the Fatherhood of God

Inheritance: Believers are heirs of the Father’s
kingdom.
“Now if we are children, then we are heir – heirs
of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we
share in his sufferings in order that we may also
share in his glory.” Rom. 8:17.

Submission: Believers are to revere the Father.
“Since you call on a Father who judges each
man‟s work impartially, live your lives as strangers
here in reverent fear.” 1 Pet. 1:17.


the Father ALMIGHTY
God is all-powerful and his able to do whatever
he wills.
“Nothing is impossible with God”. Luke 1:37.

God’s power is limited only by his character.
God cannot deny himself. 2 Tim. 2:13
God cannot tolerate evil. Hab. 1:13
God cannot be tempted. James 1:13
God cannot lie. Numbers 23:19


IV. I Believe in GOD –
MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH
God simply is.
“In the beginning God”. Gen. 1:1.
“I AM WHO I AM (I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE)”,
Ex. 3:14.

God made everything that is non-God.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.” Gen. 1:1.
He is Creator, all the rest is creation (created,
creatures).


God spoke, and it came to being.
“And God said”, Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 22, 24,
26, 28, 29.
A God who speaks to reveal himself, and
communicate.

Everything that God makes is good - very good.
“It was good”, Gen. 1:4, 9, 12, 18, 21, 24.
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very
good. And there was evening and morning - the
sixth day.” Gen. 1:31.


Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our
image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish
of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock,
over all the earth, and over all the creatures that
move along the ground. So God created human
beings in his own image, in the God he created them;
male and female he created them. Gen. 1:26, 27

The LORD God took the man and put him in the
Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Gen.
2:15.


God made human beings, in His image.

God made human beings, male and female.

God made human beings, to care for the rest of
God’s creation
Rule, Gen. 1:26; work and take care, Gen. 2:15

God made human beings, innocent.
The man and his wife were both naked, and they
felt no shame. Gen. 2:25.


God comes to an end of his creative work, and
he rests.
Thus the heavens and the earth (1:1) were
completed in their vast array (1:3-31). By the
seventh day God had finished the work he had
been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from
all his work. And God blessed the seventh day
and made it holy, be cause on the seventh day he
rested from all the work of creating that he had
done. Gen. 2:1-2.
Holy = separate. Work-Rest cycle; the rhythms of
life.
Not Deism. Samuel Ong/W-Hope/23.9.12

The creation proclaims his greatness and glory.
The heavens declares the glory of God; the skies
proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they
pour forth speech; night after night they display
knowledge. They have no speech, they use no
words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their
voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the
ends of the world. Psalm 19:1-4.
Witness and Worship


Challenges to the idea of
God
Atheism and secularism – No god!
Richard Dawkins – The God Delusion (2006), Atheist Bus Campaign
(2008)
Singapore Humanist Society, Malaysian Atheists, Freethinkers and
Agnostics (MAFA) and Unscientific Malaysia.

New Age – I am god!

Polytheism – many gods!
Different gods for different places, situations, peoples

Pantheism – everything is a god!

Deism – the absent god!

Monotheism – one God, but whose God?
Christianity (Jesus the God-Messiah), Judaism (No Jesus), Islam (Jesus
the prophet)


Paul in Athens, Acts 17:16-33
The Situation
The city was full of idols, 17:16
They were religious people, 17:22 (Athenians,
foreigners, Epicureans, Stoics – 17:18, 21)
Even an altar to “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”, 17:23


BLANK


Paul’s Methods
Reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and
God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the market
place day by day with those who happened to be
there. 17:17
Preaching the good news about Jesus and the
resurrection, 17:19.
Now what you worship as something unknown I
am going to proclaim to you. 17:24 ( to a meeting
in the Areopagus, 17:19).


Paul’s Message (Content)
God who made heaven and earth, including all
human beings and every nation of men, 17:24, 26
Lord of heaven and earth, 17:24
Does not live in temples built by hands and not
served by human hands as if he needed
anything, 17:24-25
He did this so that men would seek him, reach out
for him, and find him, 17:27, “for in him we live
and move and have our being”, 17:28


Paul’s Message (Content)
God is not like gold or silver or stone – an image
made by man‟s design and skill, 17:29.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but
now he commands people all everywhere to
repent. 17:30
For he has set a day when he will judge the world
with justice by the man he has appointed. 17:31a.
He has given proof of this to all men by raising
him from the dead. 17:31b.


Response
When they heard about the resurrection of the
dead, some of them sneered, 17:32
But others said, We want to hear you again on
this subject. 17:33
A few men became followers of Paul and
believed – Dionysius, Damaris and a number of
others. 17:34


The apostles' creed ii

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