Christ is Central in Our Church 16MAR2014

No Creed but Christ:

“Christ is Central in our Church” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

©Good News Community Fellowship; Marikina City, Philippines

Proposition:

The central message of the Church must be Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Who he is? And what He did?


Down through the ages many churches have used creeds - short documents describing their group’s beliefs. Confessions – longer descriptions of their beliefs, usually in book form. Catechisms – series of questions designed to teach new members their beliefs.


For example: Nicene Creed Apostles Creed, Augsburg Confessions, Belgic Confessions, Westminster Confessions of Faith, Heidelberg Catechism, Short and Larger Catechisms, The Canons of Dort, The 39 Articles of Faith, and so on.


Accordingly, these documents provide two things:


a. Creeds protect the church against heresy.

The reasoning is: If we all know what we believe, we will know false teachings when we see it. In fact, creeds came into being: to combat the heresies the church faced over the ages.


b. Creeds helped define what their church, sect, or denomination believed.

Creed comes from the Latin word “credo” which means “I believe”. Thus “Statements of Faith” could be reasonably called creed.


Facts with Creed:

a. Creeds are declarations of what you must believe before you belong to a particular church. And they are often given power and authority by those groups that are equal to Scripture in the minds of their followers. In effect, creedal statements are the authority.


b. Creeds are not Scripture – they may be doctrinally sound, Biblically based but a creed is not God’s Word. Creeds are merely commentaries on God’s Word.


c. Creeds give us the false impression that they can protect us against heresy. There is no guarantee that merely having written standard will preserve us from theological error. Creeds are not inspired.


d. Creeds are changeable. The problem with the creeds created by men is that they are malleable. Men can alter them at will. They can even vote on them.


e. Creeds are inherently divisive. Every Church, Sect, Denomination has their own creed, and their creedal statements serve to distinguish that group and their doctrines from all other denominations and groups.


Problems with Creed:

a. They are often given authority equal with God’s Word but they are not God’s Word. They are merely commentaries composed by men.


b. They don’t have the power to protect us from heresy, only Scripture can do that. Scripture is sufficient to protect us from false doctrines. It is inspired and not the creed.


c. Creeds are not absolute. They are created by men and they can be changed by men.

d. If we truly rely upon creeds, they only serve to divide Christ’s Church.


And so we say, No creed but Christ, No book but the Bible. But what does it mean? It means that – in order to belong to Christ’s Church or to this church – you don’t need to go through a long list of questions to determine your doctrinal purity.


Our only creed is Christ. The only thing you need to know is Jesus to start out.


1 Corinthians 2:1-5

1. The Manner: “I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom”, “I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling”


2. The Message: “I proclaimed to you the testimony about God”; “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”


3. The Means: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”


Conclusion

Our job is to teach people to know Christ and our only source of the information to that should be the Bible. And everything we will do is to point people to Jesus Christ. Thus our creed is Christ – He is all you need to know to belong to His Church and to belong here. And without Christ – no creed has any value.


Christ is Central in Our Church 16MAR2014

Spiritual

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