His Creeds Against Our Doubt

Trinity Sunday

June 11, 2017

Matthew 28:17

His Creeds Against Our Doubt

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Matthew 28:

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I Am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Why do we have Creeds? The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed? Why do we agree with these Creeds? Why do we make them our personal statement of what we believe? Why? “Because some doubted.” The text from Matthew that I just read to you said,

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted.

But some doubted. Creeds are meant to be universal truths drawn from Scripture to nail down the faith in a short and simple way. The Creeds of the church developed because some doubted and others failed to listen to Jesus.

Sixty years or so after Jesus’ ascension, a man named Cerinthus (SIR-RIN-THUS) who claimed to be a Christian, but he doubted the actions of the true God. This man taught that God the Father did not make the physical world. He taught that Jesus was not God. Cerinthus did not listen to Jesus’ command to observe all that Jesus had taught them.

In response to this false confession of faith, the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds teach the truth:

they teach that Jesus is the only Son of the Father,

they teach that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary,

they teach that He is God of God and Light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made,

and they teach that He is perfect God and perfect Man composed of a rational soul and human flesh.

What does this mean for you? It means that your forgiveness isn’t fake, it’s real forgiveness, it’s not an illusion, it’s not imitation forgiveness. It also means that Jesus Christ who is God and man, is who Scripture says He is, and that He died fully and completely for your sins. God didn’t skip out on the suffering of the cross or death upon the cross, it was not the man only who suffered and died, who took the cup of wrath down to the dregs. He suffered hell for you and then He died.

He did this dying for you; He died for every single last person, whether they are over 100 years old or still in their mothers’ womb. Jesus died for liars, cheats, thieves, those who curse His name and use it falsely, those who sleep around or dream of sleeping around, for those with covetous hearts, and those who refuse to hear His Word: He died for you and for me and for all our sins.

But you might wonder, “I’ve failed at making these confessions my confessions, I’ve not taught them well, I’ve not always honored what Scripture teaches about Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I’ve not had a faith that confessed these things consistently or with great conviction, I’ve been a doubter . . . is their hope for me?”

Yes! and I’ll tell you why.

When you read the Gospel of Matthew you’ll notice that when Matthew uses the word disciple he doesn’t use it to mean everyone who follows Jesus. When Saint Matthew uses disciple he is speaking of the specific men that Jesus handpicked to be the twelve, when the eleven went up on the mountain to hear the words spoken by the resurrected Christ it was the same handpicked group of men (minus Judas).

So when Matthew says that the disciples worshiped Jesus as God, it was out of the same eleven that you hear that “some doubted.” The Greek word translated some is an interesting one: it could mean that some of them doubted or it could mean the ones there doubted. Why is this important?

We just had Pentecost Sunday and the events of Matthew 28 happen before that day when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples. Now think of it: the resurrected Jesus,

Who could not be stopped by nails and spears and a crown of thorns,

Who could not be stopped by the chains of death,

Who could not be stopped by locked doors,

Who they had witnessed alive and glorious on a number of occasions together as a group,

Who had eaten with them in those days after His resurrection and done all that He said He would do,

this living Jesus stands before them yet again and there is still doubt. Yet Jesus doesn’t say, “Well, I will only send the Holy Spirit to those who muster up perfect faith; sorry guys, but not all of you will receive the promised Comforter.”

No! Jesus forgave their doubting and loved them just the same. Jesus forgave them; Jesus will forgive you. He didn’t withhold the Holy Spirit from any of them on the day of Pentecost and He doesn’t withhold the Holy Spirit from you in your baptism. Jesus will forgive you if you’ve failed in having perfect faith: ask and you shall receive.

And on the last day when the disciples, like we are risen with our bodies, remember that the deeds you give an account of will be washed clean in the blood of Christ Jesus. Sins forgiven and good works made righteous by the same blood of Christ Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will see these works and declare them good and you will enter into eternal life. So dear believers, believe and teach and confess that:

the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Amen!