Featured Sermon: The Apostles Creed – I Believe In from Matt Chandler

This week’s featured sermon is from Pastor Matt Chandler, the lead pastor of The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX (they also have campuses in Dallas, Ft. Worth and Plano), who preached a 13-part series on The Apostles Creed starting on August 22, 2015.

He gave three caveats about this particular sermon series.

He said:

It’s important to know that I have no intention of preaching the creed, but rather using the creed to preach the Bible. Here’s why. Creeds do not hold any authority in and of themselves, but rather they point outside of themselves to the ultimate authority of the Word of God. Maybe this is a helpful illustration. The moon is awesome to look at. It has no light of its own, but it tells me there’s a light out there.

If you’re in sixth grade and haven’t learned that yet, you’re like, “What?” Here’s what’s happening. The sun is casting out, radiating, heat and light, and that hits the surface of the moon and reflects to us, so that we look up and see light reflecting off the moon. Well, the creed is reflecting the light of the Word of God. The creed has no authority in and of itself, and I would never preach it like it does, but rather it points back to the authority that is the Word of God. It’s going to be helpful for you to keep that in your head at all times.

Secondly, the creed’s historic use has primarily been twofold. This is the oldest of the Christian creeds, and it has been used in two ways historically. The first is to correct error. God’s people have a tendency at times to drift into what is not true about God, and the creed corrects that. It has also been used, and primarily been used, as a tool in the spiritual formation of God’s people. The Apostles’ Creed has been used by the church for two millennia to shape the people of God around what is true.

Now if you’re here and you’re not a Christian or you’re not quite sure what to make out of all of this, let me say this very quickly. Christians do not believe in incantations. Here’s what I mean by that. You saying this along with us will not make you a Christian. You knowing this and memorizing this does not make you a Christian.

Here’s the Apostle’s Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic (universal) church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

The first sermon focused on “I believe” and what it means to believe. He referenced Romans 10:9-10 which reads, “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved,” (ESV).

He says the Apostles Creed helps believers with symmetry, clarity, community, and counsel.

You can watch the sermon below and read the transcript here.