I believe in God私は神を信じ, the Father
Almighty, maker of heaven & earth.
We are in the second of a series on WHAT WE BELIEVE. Creeds or Deeds. They are both important yet following the
Scriptures is more important than anything we say. Action is a stronger testimony than just
saying the right things. So, I Believe
IS a Matter of Faith.
The
Creed was once said in Latin. Few here
know it this way. Please stand and
proclaim WHAT you believe!
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and all that is, seen and
unseen. It is a matter of believing in a
teaching called Trinitarian Theology: the believe in a Tri-union God Head. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Today, we will
be concerned with THE FATHER.
To
start, let’s frame what we will say with three passages from Holy Script. Look to the meaning and central theme of
each.
Psalm 119:2 Blessed are those who keep His statutes and seek Him with all
their heart— Acts 17:27 God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach
out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.
Hebrews
11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please
God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He
rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
The
Apostles’ Creed was based on the early Believer’s theological understanding of
the Gospel Books, and that of the letters of Paul and others as well as with
some understanding of the Old Testament. ^1 The basic
creed itself was probably written by a church father named Ambrose in about 390
AD. He wrote: “Let them give credit to the Creed of the Apostles, which the … Church has
always kept and preserved undefiled.” ^2 "使徒信条に信を置きなさい、それは教会が常に保持し、汚れなく保たれている。 "アンブローズ
As a young attender of a local church in Rhode
Island, I remember hearing the creed repeated only a few times—just before or
after communion. I later learned that
the Creed was the cornerstone for belief for the Christian. It did not ‘cover’ some of the heresies that later came up against the Church,
but it was a good basic coverage of what the Apostles taught during those early
years of the growing Christian Church in Palestine and beyond.
We will not go into the heresies that groups
like the Arians and Unitarians brought with them because we want to look at the
Original item—not the fake. (When bankers are trained to spot fake money,
they study the real thing—anything that looked NOT like the real would be
fake.)
While the first CREED may not have looked just
like the one we said today, it covered the main points of the Apostles
teaching. (15) The emphasis being: What was taught by the 12 then is to be
taught by us today. 12使徒の教え。
Belief in
God is basic.
神への信仰は基本的なものです。 (The word “GOD” is used in well over 3995 verses in the
Bible.) We know from Scripture that this is where it all
starts and really ends. Gen 1: 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 初めに、神は天地を創造されたHajime ni, kami wa ten to jio
soozoo shita. In that Beginning, the Bible teaches,
Creator GOD was there. He is the foundational character in the Bible and
He is the original character in
Faith. It is this Creator God we worship
here this morning and is THE One we
speak about in this creed.
I believe in the Creator of heaven and earth, the God the Father
Almighty.
天地の創造主、全能の父である神を信じます。
Realize that just because we say these words and
many of us believe in them, that alone does not make them true. Nonetheless, it is true. This Creator God, Who made the heavens and
earth is real. We see His handy work all
around us. The Scriptures speak of His
Grander and splendid Power.
Jeremiah 32:17~19 17 “Ah, Sovereign Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and out-stretched arm. Nothing
is too hard for You. 18 … Great and
mighty God, whose Name is the Lord
Almighty, 19 great are Your
purposes and mighty are Your deeds. Your
eyes are open to the ways of all mankind; You reward each person according to their conduct and as their
deeds deserve.
This passage tells us of the mighty deeds of
this One we worship today. He is a
living God who was very active in Human history. The author acknowledges God’s Great and might
Power. His purposes are for His own
Glory. [Does that sound self-seeking? Not really. This IS His world! He Did Make it! And creation longs for a major healing at the
end of time!]
We read in the New Testament these words: John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing
was made that has been made. 4 In Him was life, and that life was the
light of all mankind. 5 The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
While there maybe many ideas of who and what God is, I need to remind myself and you this morning, that we do indeed serve the One who made it all. This One who created all was there when it all started and even before. And, along with the Psalmist, we need to follow his lead to acknowledge God as Creator. The Psalmist knew the stories of creation. His thoughts were not drawn off to HOW it was all done. Instead, the psalmist quickly moves beyond the “scientific” questions that garbs many people’s attention over the years. The central theme becomes: All that exists is the work of a Person. 中心的なテーマは次のようになります ：存在してものすべては“ひとりの人”の仕事である。 All creation has been thoughtfully and carefully designed. Look at it this way: Creation is a mirror, placed to replicate our thoughts and worship BACK to the One whose image Creation enables and allows us to see.
The Apostle’s’ teachings follows this as the central theme of Genesis. Not centered on the world but the Maker. Ps 104:33~34 I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. 34 May my meditation be pleasing to Him, as I rejoice in the Lord.
Still, Psalm 19:1~4 points out that the universe
itself is a wordless expression or message about God which anyone, whatever his
language, can hear. 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. 2 Day after day they pour
forth speech; night after night they reveal
knowledge. 3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has
pitched a tent for the sun.
The Apostle Paul made this same point in Romans 1. Here, Paul uses Creation to speak to the one who
does not believe. In his
argument, Paul states that Man’s sinfulness is revealed in the human struggle
to suppress the truth (the knowledge) of God, and that being available to all
creation. Rom 1:20 20 For since the creation of
the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have
been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 彼らには弁解の余地がない。
This belief in a personal God who made creation
to show His Handiwork really makes a difference. Consider this: Two lists. In one list, the words cold, dead, lifeless, uncaring.
In the second list: warm, vital, loving, alive. If you would
be living in a universe like list One, how will you feel about yourself,
others, about your future, about what has value? Now, consider living in a universe under the
second list: How will you feel about yourself? About your future? About what
has value? How wonderful that God has
revealed to us the true nature of His universe so that we might have comfort
& hope.
I’d like to look at a few words that reveal who
God is and what He is like. This is taken from Genesis one. The first word is differentiation. 分化。Or separation. In verse 4, God makes a distinction between
light and darkness. Earth from sea…day
from night—as God sets up a stable pattern for his World. It is not all the
same thing. There is a separation.
Diversity. 多様性 or range. From the simple uniqueness of each snowflake
to the complexity in the animal world, God
finds delight in creative expression. 神は創造的な表現に喜びを見つける He is showing deep
concern for the individual differences yet holds them apart. There is male and female. There is dark and light. There is a difference and it is OK. It is OK within His boundaries.
His Delight. 喜び Or Pleasure.
God has taken pleasure in His Creation.
We can hear His judgment call: “It is good.”
“It is very good!” We can trust this One we call God as
He finds delight in the things He has made.
He is not cold to creation. He is actively evolved with them. He clearly cares about His creation. He is not
changeable (変わりやすい)
nor unpredictable (予測). He designed the world to be stable and
orderly. The seasons, tides, etc. We
find a God who values and in doing that, chooses ALWAYS to do that which is, in
every way, good. So, in short, The
Creator God is good.
Over time, certain teachings have affected the
Christian doctrine of God that puts another spin on His character. You have heard it said that God is
unchanging…unchangeable. ^3 But these teachers
teach that process and change are essential aspects of genuine existence, and
therefore God must be changing over time as well. Changing, just like everything else that
exists. They teach that God is
continually changing and adding to Himself as things change in the
universe. For them, this comes from a
deep need Mankind has to feel significant in the vast universe. They dislike the doctrine of God’s immutability
or unchangeableness 不変性. Again, they teach that everything we do—in
fact, everything that happens in the universe—has a real effect on God, because
God can change. So, what difference do
we make? How can we have any ultimate
meaning? They teach that we have great
influence on the very Being of God Himself!
As we act, and as the universe changes, God is truly affected by those
actions and the Being of God changes—God becomes
something other than what He was. God
grows up… In this way, Mankind can be
significant.
The main teaching of Scripture is however, the
other way around. Our ultimate
significance comes not from being able to change the Being of God, but from the
fact that God has created us for HIS glory and that HE counts us as
significant!
He is unchangingness
gives us lasting Hope. 私たちに希望を与えてくれる。If He would change,
which quality would change? Would He change to be a little evil. Would the One we first knew when we trusted
in Him be in fact the same God later in our Walk of Faith? Maybe His promises
are now not valid because someone changed His Heart and Jesus really did not
have to die for our sins…not really needed to be raise from the dead. That we might not have eternal life—because
mankind changed God’s mind!
Is He God?
IF God is changing, then the whole basis of our faith begins to fall
apart, and our understanding of the universe begins to unravel. THE SCRIPTURES BECOME A LIE. This is
because our faith and hope and knowledge all ultimately depends on a Person Who
is infinitely worthy of trust—because He is absolutely and eternally unchanging
in His Being. In His perfections, in His purposes and in His promises, they are
absolutely solid. This is the One in
whom I believe. この方こそ私が信じている方である。
^1 St. Ambrose of Milan.
"St. Ambrose of Milan,
Letter 42:5". Tertullian.org. Archived from the original on
June 05 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
^2 Apostles' Creed in Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford
University Press 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), p. 90
^3 Wayne A
Grudem, “Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine” :
Inter-Varsity Press, ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1994.
