How do you summarise a life? I wonder how you would summarise your life. What are the most important things about you and what you\u2019ve done that you would want to be remembered. Sometimes when I go to visit families to prepare for a funeral service they have a eulogy ready that the person wrote themselves before they died, sometimes a family member or friend will write one, sometimes I listen to the family tell the stories of the person\u2019s life and weave a tribute together from them. However we get there, it\u2019s quite a task to distil the essence of a person\u2019s life into a few short minutes \u2013 you can\u2019t get everything in, but you want to get the most important things, the things that were distinctive, that made them, them.<\/p>\n
When the writers of the Creeds were composing these statements of faith, they faced a similar challenge. What were the most important things that needed to be said about Jesus\u2019 life and ministry, about what he did and why he did it? What was distinctive about him that needed to be emphasised?<\/p>\n
We started exploring what they decided on last week, when we thought about Jesus\u2019 name and title, his humanity and his divinity. If you missed it you can catch up on the videos, the podcast, or my sermon blog. This week we\u2019re moving on, from the beginning of his life on earth right to the end. It might surprise us that the Creed skips over pretty much everything in between \u2013 all the teaching and the miracles \u2013 but when we stop and think about it, it makes sense. Jesus didn\u2019t come primarily to teach or to do miracles. He came to save us \u2013 that was the most important thing, so that is what the Creed focusses on.<\/p>\n
Jesus was a great moral teacher, he was an example of good life, but those weren\u2019t the most important things about him. The most important thing about him was that he was sent by the Father to rescue us and the whole of creation from the consequences of our sin.<\/p>\n
We see the same pattern in Peter\u2019s teaching to the folk he met at Cornelius\u2019 house, that we heard read from Luke\u2019s carefully researched historical account of the early church, which we have in Acts. Cornelius was a centurion in the Roman army, stationed in Caesarea, who had come to believe in God.<\/p>\n
One day he had a vision of an angel who told him to send to Simon the Tanner in Joppa, asking him to send a man called Simon Peter who was staying with him.<\/p>\n
Peter was invited, and came, having had a vision of his own that reassured him that going to a gentile\u2019s home, receiving his hospitality, and telling him about Jesus was ok. This was a big thing for a Jewish person to do, it broke through all kinds of cultural barriers and boundaries. Having arrived, Peter begins to speak to Cornelius and his household about Jesus. <\/p>\n
In the course of this Peter does briefly mention Jesus\u2019 works of power, but only as an aside, as something that he expects his hearers to already know about. He doesn\u2019t mention any of Jesus\u2019 teaching. He focusses on who Jesus is and what Jesus had done, and why.<\/p>\n
He begins with what we talked about last week \u2013 Jesus Christ, the Lord, sent and anointed by the Father. A real man from a real place called Nazareth.
\nThen he jumps on to the end of Jesus\u2019 time on earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe killed him by hanging him on a cross.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or, as we say in the Creed,<\/p>\n
\u201csuffered under Pontius Pilate,
\nwas crucified, died, and was buried;\u201d<\/p>\n
This way of phrasing it captures some important things. We might be curious as to why Pontius Pilate gets a mention, the only other non-divine person in the Creed is Mary. It\u2019s because it roots this in history. There was an actual Roman governor, in a real place, in a historical context, who oversaw Jesus\u2019 death.<\/p>\n
The next piece might seem like it\u2019s stating the obvious, but again it has a purpose. He was crucified \u2013 a horrible, traitor\u2019s death that the Romans were expert in inflicting. He was dead and buried. He did not faint to be revived later. He was really dead, in a real tomb. Jesus really died, with all that goes with that.<\/p>\n
And then, Peter goes on to say,<\/p>\n
\u201cbut God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Creed has it:<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the third day he rose again;\u201d<\/p>\n
Again, this is a real thing. He didn\u2019t appear as a ghostly apparition, or phantom. He was really there, bodily. Peter talks about the fact that he ate and drank with them. That there were witnesses. He emphasises this because people were no more likely to rise from the dead then than they are now. He knew that what he was telling his listeners was incredible \u2013 that the burden of proof was on him. That\u2019s why he keeps going on about witnesses and testifying. <\/p>\n
Now, Peter doesn\u2019t mention Jesus\u2019 ascension explicitly, but it is implied in the command that he says that he has received \u2013 to preach to the people and to testify about what they had seen. If Jesus had still been around, this command wouldn\u2019t have been necessary, but he had ascended to heaven, as we can read about elsewhere, and before doing so had told his friends and followers to spread the news, which is exactly what Peter was doing that day at Cornelius\u2019 house. <\/p>\n
The testimony of the disciples join the testimony of the prophets, \u201ceveryone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.\u201d and in a month or so Heather will be helping us to explore what it means to believe in this forgiveness, as that comes a bit later in the creed.<\/p>\n
If we were to read on we would discover that as this message was preached the Holy Spirit came on all who were there, they came to believe and trust in Jesus, and were baptised. We\u2019ll be exploring belief in the Holy Spirit later in the series as well.<\/p>\n
For today\u2019s purposes though, what we notice is that it is the most important things about Jesus \u2013 his death, resurrection, accension and appointment as judge that Peter focusses on as he tells people the good news about Jesus. And this sets the pattern that the creed picks up on. <\/p>\n
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
\nwas crucified, died, and was buried;
\nhe descended to the dead.
\nOn the third day he rose again;
\nhe ascended into heaven,
\nhe is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.<\/p>\n
Now, Peter doesn\u2019t expand on what it means for Jesus to be the judge of the living and the dead, but we do have Jesus teaching about his own appointment as judge. This is what we heard read from John\u2019s eye witness account of Jesus\u2019 teaching.<\/p>\n
On first reading this piece of teaching can seem a bit difficult to understand, but the core of it is that everything Jesus does comes from what he sees his Father doing. There are two areas that Jesus uses as examples. Life and judgement.<\/p>\n
In verses 21 and 22 we read, \u201cjust as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no-one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the way through verses 24 \u2013 29 we get these themes of life-giving and judgement having been entrusted to Jesus, woven together.
\nFinally in verse 30 we get a return to the main theme as Jesus says, \u201cI seek not to please myself but the one who sent me.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are two main ways of understanding Jesus\u2019 teaching about life and judgement.<\/p>\n
The first is to take verse 24 and understand that to mean that anyone who comes to believe and trust in Jesus in this life has already been freed from death to eternal life. Although they will experience physical death, they will then enter directly into life with God, with no judgement after death. Then – picking up v28 and 29 – when Jesus returns, those who have not believed in this life will face Jesus\u2019 judgement. Those who heard about Jesus and refused him, and those whose deeds have been evil, will be condemned. Those who had not heard about Jesus in this life, but whose deeds were good, will rise to life.<\/p>\n
The second way of understanding this teaching is still to acknowledge that those who believe in this life have begun eternal life, but that they will still face Jesus as judge at the last judgement. Going into that, they know that they will not be condemned because they have carried out the \u201cgood work\u201d of believing.
\nEither way, we began by thinking about we might want our life summarised, and then went on to think about a summary of Jesus\u2019 life and ministry. We\u2019ve ended back almost where we began, but not with how we might summarise our lives \u2013 with how Jesus summarises our lives. For, in the end, it will be his judgement that matters, not ours. Have we believed the one who sent him, who has given him power and authority over our life, have we stepped into the eternal life that he offers us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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