+Points to ponder

1. What is ‘truth’ according to our post-modern culture? Is it the same as what Jesus refers to when He says, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life”?
2. Nicodemus (and some today) wrestle with the idea of needing to be born ‘from above’ – to be born of ‘water and Spirit.’ How does this effect our discipleship and church practice?
3. Consider using the Athanasian creed as a devotional tool. Does this creed give you a sense of being connected to the early church?

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, You have given to us Your servants, grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of the divine majesty to worship the Unity: keep us steadfast in this faith, that we may evermore be defended from all adversities; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, Amen.

Introduction

David Holdaway in his book, ‘The Life of Jesus,’ shared this story: “Lew Wallace, [former] governor of New Mexico, was writing a book against Jesus Christ and in the process was converted to Christianity. He told a friend how it happened.

‘I had always been an agnostic and denied Christianity,’ Wallace said. ‘Robert C. Ingersoll, a famous agnostic, was one of my most intimate friends. He once said, ‘See here, Wallace, you are a learned man and a thinker. Why don’t you gather material and write a book to prove the falsity concerning Jesus Christ, that no such man has ever lived, much less the author of the teachings found in the New Testament? Such a book would make you famous. It would be a masterpiece, and a way of putting an end to the foolishness about the so-called Christ.’ ’

Wallace went home and told his wife about the project. She was a member of the Methodist Church and did not like the idea. But Wallace began to collect material from libraries all over the world that covered the period in which Jesus Christ should have lived. He did that for several years and then began writing. He was four chapters into the book, he says, when it became clear to him that Jesus Christ was just as real a personality as Socrates, Plato, or Caesar. ‘The conviction became a certainty. I knew that Jesus Christ had lived because of the facts connected with the period in which he lived.’

So, he asked himself candidly, ‘If he was a real person, was he not then also the Son of God and the Savior of the world?’ Gradually Wallace realized that since Jesus Christ was a real person, he probably was the one he claimed to be.

‘I fell on my knees to pray for the first time in my life, and I asked God to reveal himself to me, forgive my sins, and help me to become a follower of Christ. Toward morning the light broke into my soul. I went into my bedroom, woke my wife, and told her [what God had done].

‘ ‘O Lew,’ she said, ‘I have prayed for this ever since you told me of your purpose to write this book, that you would find him while you wrote it!’ ’

Wallace went on to write a famous book. [Holdaway said,] every time I watch the epic film Ben Hur, based on that book, I wonder at how it was written by a man who wanted to disprove that Jesus ever existed and instead became convinced that he was [not only] the greatest man who ever lived [but also, that he is the Son of God.]”

The beloved apostle, John, the human author of our Gospel reading reminds us of the triumph of the Gospel in his first epistle: “[T]his is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Jesus and Nicodemus

“Though it is conducted in private, [the] conversation [between Jesus and Nicodemus] was a part of Jesus’ public ministry … John records this conversation because it really constitutes a summary of Jesus’ teaching, dealing, as it does, with the kingdom, regeneration, faith, the Son of man, God’s love and the plan of salvation, judgment and unbelief.

Skeptical – Lew Wallace, Nicodemus, many people in our time – even you and I can have some skepticism because the sinful human nature, this world, and yes, Satan, would have us follow the refrain that faith in Christ does not give you God’s righteousness, you must work and work hard for it. Be good for goodness’ sake!

But God’s truth is at stake here as Jesus tells Nicodemus, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”

Athanasius Defends the Truth of the Trinity

And so, the New Testament Church since its birth has sought to share the good news of the free gift of faith and salvation in Christ, to tell God’s truth and defend the faith, to celebrate the triumph of the Gospel, to see His kingdom expand as people are being delivered from sin, death, and the ultimate liar, Satan.

On this Sunday we celebrate this gracious gift of faith and the truth of the God who has revealed Himself as Jesus has described – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the Holy Trinity.

In a few moments we will confess our faith in this God who is somehow Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and yet is One not three gods. Because this is God’s math, which we cannot get our heads around, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is one that Satan has regularly attacked to bring about doubt among Jesus’ followers.

In fact, Christianity constantly struggles to keep the Faith free from false philosophies and teachings. In the fourth-century culture of Alexandria, Egypt, a persuasive preacher with a logical mind used a philosophical concept foreign to the Scriptures in order to explain the connection between Jesus and his Father. Arius borrowed from the popular Greek concept that a “god,” by nature, had to be high, distant and almighty; and that humans, consequently, had to be low, spatial and inferior.

Arius taught that only the Father was really a proper God. Because Jesus was human, he was therefore only a creature (created by God) and therefore did not really possess any divine qualities.

The problem: when Arius denied the divinity of Christ, he destroyed God’s role in accomplishing our salvation. If Jesus were not really God, then he could not possibly have saved us from our sins.

“The Church responded decisively in AD 325 with a statement of faith (The Nicene Creed), which confessed that Jesus is, in fact, true God.”

And more, standing for orthodox Christianity was Athanasius. Against Arius, he declared the scriptural teaching of the two natures of Christ – that he was both ‘true God,’ and ‘true man.’

The creed that bears Athanasius’ name came a little later and it “declares that its teachings concerning the Holy Trinity and our Lord’s incarnation are ‘the catholic faith.’ In other words, this is what the true Church of all times and places has confessed. More than fifteen centuries later, the Church continues to confess this truth, confident that the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has given Himself for our salvation.”

By affirming Jesus’ divinity, this creed confesses that God is the originator of our salvation – He did it for us. By affirming Jesus’ humanity, it confesses that Jesus died for every part of us – He was a Savior who was completely human.

And so, as we confess our faith in the words of the Athanasian Creed, as we are obedient to the mission Jesus has given us, we can hear for ourselves and share with others the truth of the Trinity and the triumph of the Gospel: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

So, let us rise and confess our faith in the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit using the great historical Athanasian Creed.

The Athanasian Creed

P: Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith.

C: Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally.

P: And the catholic faith is this,

C: that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

P: For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is another.

C: But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.

P: Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit:

C: the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated;

P: the Father infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite;

C: the Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal.

P: And yet there are not three Eternals, but one Eternal,

C: just as there are not three Uncreated or three Infinites, but one Uncreated and one Infinite.

P: In the same way, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the Holy Spirit almighty;

C: and yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.

P: So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; C: and yet there are not three Gods, but one God.

P: So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord;

C: and yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord.

P: Just as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so also are we prohibited by the catholic religion to say that there are three Gods or Lords.

C: The Father is not made nor created nor begotten by anyone.

P: The Son is neither made nor created but begotten of the Father alone.

C: The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding.

P: Thus, there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.

C: And in this Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another;

P: but the whole three persons are coeternal with each other and coequal, so that in all things, as has been stated above, the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity is to be worshiped.

C: Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.

P: But it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

C: Therefore, it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man.

P: He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age:

C: perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh;

P: equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity.

C: Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ:

P: one, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God;

C: one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.

P: For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ,

C: who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead,

P: ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

C: At His coming all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds.

P: And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire.

C: This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.

P: Amen. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

C: Amen. This is most certainly true.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

---