Sermon for St Edward’s, as part of a series on The Nicene Creed. Parts 1 & 2 given by others.
Readings: John 14:15-31, 2 Cor 3:4-18
Ok so we are in part 3 of our series looking at the Nicene Creed, today we are focussed on the lines on the Holy Spirit:
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
But to give a quick recap, we have heard that the Nicene Creed was first put together at the Council of Nicea in 325 at the urging of Emperor Constantine. He called the all the bishops to a council in response to division in the church over what people believed, and he was seeking unity in the church. It was not a smooth process but the subsequent creed laid out what the belief was as to who God is; and has, with a few alterations, remained in use since then – 1700 years! Credo simply means I believe in Latin, hence where the name came from, and Nicene from Nicea, the place where it was worded. It is, as we have heard over the last few weeks, based on scriptures that describe who God is.
We might ask why it is still important today? I’ve been reading a book about the creed and the author suggests that in this age where people seem to want to invent their own truth it is more important than ever before. And of course in the Church of England alone we see much division but in this Creed the church is united. It is said in Anglican churches, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran churches and others. So in that sense it does still bring, as Constantine intended, a level of unity.
So today we are focussing on the Holy Spirit:
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
Now one quick aside here, the creed says ‘he’ but there is an argument for the Holy Spirit being seen as the feminine side of God. I’m not going to go into too much detail on that today but do look it up, it’s interesting. It partly comes from the fact that the Holy Spirit is associated with Wisdom, which is seen as female in the Bible. And that the word ruach, the hebrew for Spirit can be seen as a feminine word. As you know I personally, tend to use God as a pronoun and not use he/she because Genesis talks of humans as made in the image of God, male and female God created them – God must contain both male and female.
Now, in fact in the first version of the Nicene Creed in 325 it simply said we believe in the Holy Spirit. The further lines were added at a later Council of Nicaea in 381. At the original council the key question had been around who Jesus is, was he genuinely the son of God true God, from true God. But later there came questions about the Holy Spirit. This meeting was not as controversial as the earlier discussions but there were a group of particularly Macedonian bishops who did not agree that the Spirit was equally God. The council wanted to find a form of words that would closely reflect what the scriptures said about the Holy Spirit, as fully and co-equally God with the Father and the Son.
Firstly we see the line… the Lord, the giver of life.
This wording was partly to persuade those who did not accept the Spirit was a person of God. It is based on Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 3:
…our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of Spirit; for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.
2 Cor 3:5-6
So the Spirit is the giver of life.
And a few verses later Paul says, verse 17:
Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in the mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
The Spirit is the Lord, a divine title, which was used in the Old Testament only for God, but in the New Testament is also applied to Jesus himself. So the Father and the Son are equally Lord, and here the Spirit also.
the Lord, the giver of life.
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Again this language was to show the Spirit as a person of God. The original Greek verb means to: go from or forth or, to come from or forth so that the preposition ‘from’ shows the derivation – ie: the Spirit comes from the father, so the father is the source and origin of the Spirit. So is partly to show that the Spirit is not from nothing, as we say, Ex Nihilo, as is the rest of creation.
And we see this also in John 15:26:
When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the father, he will testify on my behalf.
Or as in our passage from John 14: 15-17, Jesus saying,
And I will ask the father, and he will give you another advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him or knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
So the line in the Creed simply reflects Jesus’ own words pointing to the origin of the Spirit.
Then we move on to:
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
Again we see the emphasis on the Spirit as part of God, here worthy of being worshipped and glorified. Only God is worthy of worship in this way, in Exodus 20:3 we read that God says you shall have no other gods before me, idolatry is sinful. So in stating that the Spirit is worthy of worship it is confirming the Spirit as part of the one true God.
And then the last part:
Who has spoken through the prophets.
Various verses talk about the Spirit infilling the prophets to speak God’s word, for example 1 Samuel 10, where to Saul we read in verse 6 : the Spirit of Lord will possess you and you will be in a prophetic frenzy…
Or 2 Chronicles 15:1 the Spirit of God came upon Azaria, son of Oded…
Perhaps most significant is the activity of the Spirit foretold in the coming of the Messiah in Isaiah 11:1-2:
a shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And of course in Luke 41 we see Jesus himself quoting Isaiah 61:1
the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me…
In Ezekiel 36 verses 26 – 27 we read the word of the Lord from Ezekiel says: a new heart I will give you and a new Spirit I will put within you: and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.
In Joel 2 which we know is quoted by Peter at Pentecost says:
2:28-29
I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh: your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.
Joel 2:28-29
And finally, in Ephesians 3 as we heard :
5-6
In former generations this mystery [that’s the mystery of Christ] was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit…
Again we see this line in the Creed directly describing what the Spirit has done through scripture, God’s Spirit speaking through the prophets.
There are of course many scriptures referring to the Spirit. We can start at the very beginning of the Old Testament in Genesis 1 verse 1-2: In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Or in some versions the Spirit hovered over the waters.
We later see the Spirit of God equipping the people of Israel to construct the temple, Exodus 31:1-5 and in Ch 35, God calls Bezalel and Oholiab to make beautiful designs for the temple and as we read in verse three it says and I have filled him with the divine Spirit – so they are filled with God’s spirit for a key purpose.
In the New Testament we see the Holy Spirit more obviously at work in the lifetime of Jesus.
In our John 14 passage we see quite an argument for the Trinity, the 3 persons of God. in vs15-17 we see Jesus as mentioned earlier, telling the disciples the Advocate – another word for the Spirit coming – when Jesus (the Son) asks the Father to send the Spirit. In one line we see the 3 persons of God. And in 25-26 we heard: the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name…
Again the Father, Son and Holy Spirit united in one line.
So as the Creed reminds us each week, the Holy Spirit is God, one person of the Trinity.
The Spirit is as I have shared at pentecost a few times, according to scripture:
The comforter,
An advocate
Bringer of spiritual gifts
intercedes for us
Hovered over the waters at creation
God breathed
Brings new life
You can be baptised with it
Brings prophecy
Will glorify God
Brings power to witness
Will highlight sin, righteousness and judgment in the world
Is like fire and wind
Will reveal Jesus
Pours God’s love into our hearts
Lives within us
And can bring
Revelation, wisdom, counsel, glory, might, understanding, knowledge, truth, freedom, holiness, adoption, life and grace…
So we declare that:
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
Amen
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