“Back to the basics: I believe in God the Father Almighty”
Acts 17:22-23
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
When he was just a teenager, Pietro Sarubbi ran away from home to join a circus. Later, he moved to China to study martial arts. Then he lived in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet, practiced meditation in India and even spent time living among the people of the Amazon. Finally, he began to act, first in plays, then in television commercials, and then in Italian movies. His big break came in 2001 when he played a character named Velisarios, the Strongman, in a movie called Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
Still, no matter where he lived or what he did, he just couldn’t fill that spiritual void that ached inside of him.
Until one day, actor and director Mel Gibson approached him about taking a role in his new movie, The Passion of the Christ. “Great!” thought Pietro, hoping to play the part of Peter.
But that’s not at all what Gibson had in mind. Instead, he wanted him to play the part of Barabbas. Gibson said, “You see, Barabbas wasn’t just a bandit. He was a dog. He was an animal. He had been imprisoned, tortured, and taken to the limit of what was humanly bearable.”
Then Gibson added, “Now don’t look at Christ until the very scene where you’re supposed to appear together. That way,” he said, “the scene could come together as naturally as possible, based on the biblical account.” He said, “It’s like you’re seeing Christ for the very first time.” So he did just as Gibson had instructed him.
But what happened in that moment would change his life forever.
When it came time to play the scene and the crowd begged Pilate to crucify Jesus and release Barabbas, Sarubbi first looked out at the mob and then he looked at Jesus.
And in that moment, he said, he felt as if an electric current passed between them, for when he looked into Jesus’ eyes, he didn’t see any hatred or resentment--only mercy and love. He said, “I could not imagine that a simple actor playing Jesus could look at me in a way that would turn my soul upside down.”
And it was in that moment that he said, “I believe.”
You could hardly put two more life-changing or earth-shattering words together: “I believe.” But that’s just what we find in the words of the Apostles’ Creed.
So what do you know about the Apostles’ Creed?
Legend says that on Pentecost, ten days after Christ ascended into heaven, the disciples gathered together and composed the words of the creed.
Peter said, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” Andrew said, “And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord.” James added, “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.” Thomas said, “He descended into hell and on the third day He rose again from the dead.” James said, “And He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” Philip added, “From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.” Bartholomew said, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” Matthew added, “The holy Christian church, the communion of saints.” Simon said, “The forgiveness of sins.” Thaddaeus said, “The resurrection of the body.” And Matthias concluded with the words, “And the life everlasting.”
But if truth be known, it just wasn’t that way at all. Instead, the creed took centuries to become what it is today!
But how thankful we are that it is what it is today, for each Sunday, as we gather for worship, we, together with all the Christian church on earth, confess our faith in God the Father Almighty.
It’s been said that everybody believes in something. In fact, you can’t live without some kind of faith. It’s crucial to all human existence.
For example, we believe that we can know what time it is. We believe that if we were to drop an object, the force of gravity will cause it to fall to the ground. We believe that night follows day and day follows night.
Even more, as we grow, we learn who we can trust and who we can’t trust. Based on a trial-and-error process, faith tells us which toothpaste to buy, which news report to listen to, which airline to fly and which person to marry.
We spend much of our lives living and acting out our faith.
And the Apostles’ Creed is very much just like that. It’s a faith statement. It says what we believe, as well as what we don’t believe, about God.
And it’s corporate. It’s just not what I believe, it’s what the church over the span of twenty centuries has believed.
So when you and I speak the words of the Apostles’ Creed, it’s not just what we believe here and now in August of 2022. It’s what millions and even billions have believed--a great company of Christians of many places and many times who have all shared and still share in this common confession.
So what do we mean when we say, “I believe in God the Father Almighty”?
If you think about it, it’s a pretty bold thing to say, for according to a recent Gallup poll, Americans’ belief in God has dropped dramatically in recent years, to the absolute lowest level in seventy-eight years! While as many as ninety-eight percent of Americans once said they believed in God, today it’s barely eighty-one percent. And when asked whether or not they believed that God hears and answers our prayers, twenty-eight percent said God hears our prayers but can’t do anything about it, and eleven percent said He doesn’t even care.
And if that’s not enough for you, think of the nearly countless religions that surround us. With its close to two billion followers, (making it the second-largest religion in the world), Islam believes that Allah is the one, true God. With its one billion followers, Hinduism believes in thirty-three million gods. And Buddhism and Jainism and Confucianism and Taoism and Atheism, for that matter, don’t believe in a god at all!
So for us Christians to say, “I believe in God” sets us apart from some five and a half billion people around the world!
So why do we believe in God? Let me ask, when you look at the world around you, what do you see? Did all this just happen, or is there a reason behind it? Does the design have a designer? Or as a philosopher might put it, is there an “Unmoved Mover”?
Back in the early 1800s, in his book Natural Theology, William Paley wrote that suppose you were walking across a field and accidentally stubbed your foot against a stone and you wondered, how long had it been there and how did it get there? For all you knew, it could have been there forever.
But what if, on the other hand, you found a watch lying on the ground. Now a stone is one thing, but a watch is something else! Arguably there must have been, at some time and some place, someone who designed that watch and built that watch for the specific purpose of telling time.
Then he wrote, “Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation.”
In other words, if you think a watch is complex, the world around us is infinitely more complex.
A watch requires a watchmaker. A design requires a designer.
“I believe in God.”
But who is this God, and what do we know about Him? He’s omniscient--He knows all things. He’s omnipotent--He has all power. He’s omnipresent--He’s present wherever He chooses to be. He’s eternal--He has no beginning nor end, and neither is he limited to the past, the present or the future. He’s immutable, unchangeable--He’s forever the same. He’s holy, completely free of evil in His perfection. He’s just and right, devoid of any caprice or vindictiveness. He’s merciful, loving and kind.
“I believe in God.”
And not only do we believe in God, we believe in God the Father Almighty.
It’s funny if you think about it--”Father” and “Almighty” are words that hardly belong together, for “Father” is intimate and personal and “Almighty” tells of His unlimited power. Still, when the Church Fathers wanted to talk about God, it’s those two very words that they chose to put together--”Father Almighty.”
To call Him “Father” means He will do all that is necessary for my well-being. And to call Him “Almighty” means He is able to do whatever needs to be done.
To put it another way, to say He is Almighty means, He can! And to say He is Father means, He will!
And that’s what we confess when we say, “I believe in God the Father Almighty.”
Can you do this for me? Can you complete this sentence? “If I truly believed in God the Father Almighty, I would…” How would you fill in the blank?
If you truly believed in God the Father Almighty, you would trust Him more and complain less. You’d forgive more and get angry less. You’d pray more and grumble less. You’d say, “Your will be done,” knowing that He is not your enemy. And you’d enjoy all the gifts that He has given.
In the words of a poem: “When the birds begin to worry, and the lilies toil and spin; And God’s creatures all are anxious, then I also may begin. For my Father sets their table, decks them out in garments fine, And if He supplies their living, will He not provide for mine?”
“I believe in God the Father Almighty.”
The book of Acts, chapter 17, tells the story of Paul and his second missionary journey. He had already been to Neapolis and Philippi, to Berea and to Thessalonica. Now, in chapter 17, he came to Athens, the home of philosophers, the seat of learning, “god central,” a city, the Bible says, that was full of idols.
And as Paul stood on the top of Mars’ Hill, a place where teachers and philosophers often met to talk, this is what he said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22-23).
And when he finished speaking that day, some mocked him, while others said, “We would like to hear you speak some more.”
Who is God? He is all-wise and all-knowing. He can do anything and everything we cannot do. He is everything good we would like to be. We are mortal. He is immortal. We are fallible. He is infallible. He has no beginning and no end.
He isn’t vague, abstract, absent or unreachable. He is Immanuel, “God with us.” He knows you through and through. He gives life and love. He’s the source of everything good.
When you fall, He lifts you up. When you fail, He forgives you. When you’re weak, He is strong. When you hurt, He heals you. When you’re broken, He mends you. When you’re blind, He leads you. When you’re hungry, He feeds you. When you’re troubled, He comforts you. When you face death, He carries you home. He is everything for everyone, everywhere, every day and every time.
And if you want to know who God is and what He’s like, then look at our Savior Jesus. That’s what He said in the book of John: “If you would have known Me, you would have known My Father also” (John 14:7). And He said, “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known” (John 1:18).
And how much does He love you? How much does He care for you? Look at Christ on the cross. For that’s the price He was willing to pay that your sins would be forgiven, that you might live forever.
As a hymn writer once put it, “As the branch is to the vine, I am His and He is mine.”
We thank You, dear Father, for revealing Yourself to us in Your Word. Grant that we may read it, learn it, and inwardly digest it, that we may come to know You as Savior and Lord. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen