WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.320 Good morning again. Welcome to Church of the Advent. One of the things that we notice 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:18.280 immediately when we look at the early church and the composition of the early church is 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:26.000 the incredible diversity. And one of the reasons for that, that kind of unprecedented diversity, 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:33.480 is the fact that the early church was a place where profound reconciliation had become possible. 00:00:34.140 --> 00:00:42.960 And profound reconciliation was taking place in a very real way, and that affected the makeup of 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:49.460 the people who were sitting together in worship. So you had all of these groups of people that had 00:00:49.460 --> 00:01:00.320 historically been divided from one another because of race or class or ethnicity or even gender. 00:01:00.980 --> 00:01:06.879 And in the early church, you have all of these groups coming together and worshiping one another 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:11.519 in this amazing way. And you look at that kind of reconciliation, and I probably don't have to 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:18.640 spend too much time convincing you how necessary, how vital that kind of reconciliation would be 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:26.760 in today's context, as we look at how divided our society is, how divided our world is. And in our 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:34.019 study of 2 Corinthians, we come to this amazing place in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 through 00:01:34.019 --> 00:01:41.159 chapter 6 verse 2, where Paul really talks about this ministry of reconciliation. And he talks about 00:01:41.159 --> 00:01:48.620 the power that makes this kind of reconciliation possible, the source of power that makes this kind 00:01:48.620 --> 00:01:54.719 of reconciliation possible. And, you know, if you think of a battery, a battery has both a negative 00:01:54.719 --> 00:02:02.200 charge and a positive charge. And you need both in order to create the kind of power necessary to 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:08.420 drive things. And it's the same here. The battery, so to speak, that powers Paul's ministry of 00:02:08.420 --> 00:02:15.759 reconciliation has both a negative charge and a positive charge. The negative charge is the fear of 00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:23.219 Christ. And the positive charge is the love of Christ. So, we're going to look at each of those and how they 00:02:23.219 --> 00:02:31.620 make reconciliation possible. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for what we're 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:37.399 about to talk about, the fact that You're a God who is drawing together people from every tribe, tongue, 00:02:37.399 --> 00:02:44.599 and nation. Lord, that it was Your great secret hidden through the ages, even from the angels, and now made known 00:02:44.599 --> 00:02:51.299 through Your apostles that You were going to send Your Son to bring blessing to all the nations of the 00:02:51.299 --> 00:02:58.379 earth. And, Lord, that comes through reconciliation. And we pray that You would bless our time and study 00:02:58.379 --> 00:03:05.259 of Your Word, that You might work in us, make us into such people. Lord, we pray this in Your Son's 00:03:05.259 --> 00:03:13.079 holy name. Amen. So, first of all, the negative charge that makes reconciliation possible, the fear of 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:16.940 Christ. We see this in verses 10 through 16. Paul says, 00:03:17.440 --> 00:03:23.560 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:30.820 what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade 00:03:30.820 --> 00:03:41.100 others. The fear of Christ means knowing that there's an ultimate standard of right and wrong that 00:03:41.099 --> 00:03:48.819 supersedes all earthly standards. And the fear of Christ means recognizing that one day we are all 00:03:48.819 --> 00:03:58.099 going to stand before Christ who is going to judge us according to our lives, according to this ultimate 00:03:58.099 --> 00:04:05.219 standard. And you say, well, that doesn't sound like very good news. Well, it's actually tremendously 00:04:05.219 --> 00:04:13.960 good news. This is actually the foundation of the argument that William Wilberforce used in his 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:20.980 argument before the British House of Commons for the abolition of slavery. You know, Wilberforce lived in 00:04:20.980 --> 00:04:29.279 a time in a society where society had widely accepted slavery as a necessity. And like many other 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:38.559 societies throughout history, we and they, the British society, had discovered that you can amass 00:04:38.559 --> 00:04:44.959 enormous amounts of wealth if you have such a cheap labor force to do so with. And so the primary 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:52.339 argument for slavery was the economic benefit that it provided to the society as a whole. How can we do 00:04:52.339 --> 00:04:57.899 away with this? Our economy will collapse. And so Wilberforce stands up, and this is the core of his 00:04:57.899 --> 00:05:05.419 argument. He says this, there is a principle above everything that is political. There is a principle 00:05:05.419 --> 00:05:11.819 above everything that is political. And when I reflect on this, believing the authority to be divine, 00:05:12.179 --> 00:05:20.579 how can I dare to set up any reasonings of my own against it? He says, and when I think of eternity 00:05:20.579 --> 00:05:27.699 and of the future consequences of all human conduct, what is there in this life that should make any man 00:05:27.699 --> 00:05:35.560 contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion, and of God? 00:05:36.599 --> 00:05:45.579 Just because some ideas are popular, just because some ideas are at a given time widely accepted, 00:05:45.579 --> 00:05:54.759 does not make them right. He's saying the reason that we should abolish slavery is not simply because 00:05:54.759 --> 00:06:01.079 it is good policy. It's because there is a standard of right and wrong, a standard of moral truth that 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:08.800 exists above popular opinion. It exists above government policy, and slavery is a violation of 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:15.300 that standard. And this principle, this idea that there is an ultimate authority above all human authority, 00:06:15.300 --> 00:06:23.879 this has actually fueled Christians to fight against and resist totalitarian regimes on the political 00:06:23.879 --> 00:06:31.800 left and right throughout history. So appealing to recognizing this ultimate standard, and that there 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:38.819 is an ultimate judge who will hold all human authorities accountable, that is very good news. It has been 00:06:38.819 --> 00:06:46.800 very good news throughout history for people who have been oppressed or victims of injustice. But it also 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:55.500 leaves us with a massive, massive problem. Because unlike earthly judges, Christ is a perfect judge, meaning he 00:06:55.500 --> 00:07:03.560 judges all things according to perfect standards. Here's the problem. Not only will Christ judge all of the 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:09.939 Pol Potts or the Putins for murdering countless people, he's also going to judge those of us who have 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:19.120 murdered people in our hearts by harboring hatred against them. Jesus himself says this. Not only is he going to 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:25.819 judge those who perpetuate corporate greed and environmental degradation, he's also going to judge those of us 00:07:25.819 --> 00:07:33.120 who have ever coveted anything that wasn't ours. Right? Not only is he going to judge those who perpetuate 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:38.360 injustice in the world, but he's also going to judge those of us who have committed the greatest injustice of all, 00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:45.300 which is living in this world that God made and ignoring him. Living as though he doesn't exist. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:53.800 And so it presents us with this question, if this is true, how does God destroy evil 00:07:53.800 --> 00:08:04.199 without destroying us? Right? This is the great question of the Old Testament. How does God destroy and judge evil 00:08:04.199 --> 00:08:12.400 without destroying us? And that's why along with the negative charge of the fear of Christ, 00:08:13.100 --> 00:08:20.040 we also need the positive charge of the love of Christ. The love of Christ which we see just 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:28.240 just resonating through these verses, it says in verse 14, for the love of Christ controls us 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:36.100 because we have concluded this in the face of this problem, that one has died for all, therefore 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:42.440 all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:49.139 but for him who for their sake died and was raised. This is the extraordinary news of the gospel. 00:08:49.139 --> 00:08:56.319 In fact, this section may be my favorite place in all of scripture where we see the gospel laid out. 00:08:57.539 --> 00:09:07.620 Here's the gospel in a nutshell. The judge is also the savior. Our judge has become our savior. 00:09:07.980 --> 00:09:15.679 Imagine a judge who pronounces a sentence, right? The trial is over, all of the evidence has been 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:20.479 presented. The judge hands down the sentence, and it's a sentence of death, and everybody in the room 00:09:20.479 --> 00:09:27.819 says, this person deserves it. If anybody deserved it, this person deserves it. And then after handing 00:09:27.819 --> 00:09:35.419 out the sentence, the judge comes down out of the stand, takes off his judge's robes, and takes the place 00:09:35.419 --> 00:09:43.379 of the prisoner, and then carries out that sentence on himself so that the prisoner can go free. That's what 00:09:43.379 --> 00:09:50.679 Paul is describing here. And that in itself would be amazing, but that's not where Paul stops. Paul 00:09:50.679 --> 00:09:57.340 keeps going. It actually gets better. When we come to Jesus in faith and repentance, when we're baptized 00:09:57.340 --> 00:10:03.740 into his name, we actually become one with him. And that isn't just a kind of cute metaphor. It's a 00:10:03.740 --> 00:10:10.720 spiritual reality. Paul says in verse 17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:17.040 The old has passed away. The old covenant, the old system under the law, the old sacrificial system, 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:25.940 the old you. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. And that union with Christ leads us 00:10:25.940 --> 00:10:31.279 into one of the most extraordinary verses in the entire Bible, verse 21. Listen to this. 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:43.159 For our sake, he, Christ, or God, made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become 00:10:43.159 --> 00:10:51.259 the righteousness of God. That alone, thousands and thousands and thousands of pages have been 00:10:51.259 --> 00:10:59.220 written just about this verse. This is the highest form of intimacy there is. And in the union between us 00:10:59.220 --> 00:11:07.740 and Christ and Christ and our baptism, an exchange takes place. Jesus becomes sin. 00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:15.040 God in the flesh who knew no sin, who never committed a sin in his life, who lived a perfect life, 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:19.779 becomes sin, becomes the embodiment of sin. 00:11:19.779 --> 00:11:30.500 We become the righteousness of God. We become righteousness because we are in Christ. We take on 00:11:30.500 --> 00:11:39.240 the righteousness of Christ. So it's not just like the debt has been paid, your account is at zero, 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:47.079 and go and try to do the best you can. We actually become the righteousness of Christ. And so when we come 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:53.020 to Jesus in faith and repentance, when we're baptized, our identity and Christ's identity are actually 00:11:53.020 --> 00:12:02.580 merged together into one identity. So we gain the identity of the only begotten child of God. If you've 00:12:02.580 --> 00:12:09.280 ever looked at how the Father looks upon his only begotten Son, read the story of the baptism of Jesus, 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:17.120 Jesus, where God the Father speaks words over his Son. And these are words that every human being longs to hear. 00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:24.860 Right? I heard somebody say one time that everybody is born looking for someone who is looking for them. 00:12:26.339 --> 00:12:33.179 We're all born looking for someone who's looking for us. And I remember hearing that, and it just struck a deep 00:12:33.179 --> 00:12:43.839 chord in me. And the Father at Jesus' baptism speaks these words over Jesus, this, this is my beloved Son. 00:12:45.639 --> 00:12:52.099 In Him I'm well pleased. He delights me. Those are the words that we're born longing to hear. 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:57.979 And what this is telling us is that when we come to faith in Jesus and when we're baptized into His name 00:12:57.980 --> 00:13:03.840 and our identity with Christ is merged, it means for the rest of our lives, God speaks those words 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:11.100 over us. This is my beloved child. In this child I delight. I am well pleased. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:16.139 So it's not like our account is kind of here and then we do some bad things and it goes down here 00:13:16.139 --> 00:13:19.180 and then we do some good things and it kind of goes up here and then we do some really bad things 00:13:19.180 --> 00:13:23.560 and it goes down here and God kind of after a while is frustrated with us and, you know, kind of tolerating 00:13:23.560 --> 00:13:27.500 us. Well, I said I would forgive you, so I'll one more time, but don't do it again. 00:13:27.500 --> 00:13:31.159 And that's how human parents are. That's how I am with my kids, I hate to admit it. 00:13:31.399 --> 00:13:40.460 But that is not how God is. God delights in you. He delights in you every moment of every day. 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:51.740 He delights in you as His favorite child. He delights in you. That's what this is saying. 00:13:51.740 --> 00:13:58.299 And for Paul, this was the most extraordinary act of love he could imagine. That's why he says the 00:13:58.299 --> 00:14:03.820 love of Christ controls us. He's like, I've never found anything like this. I'm going to live the rest 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:10.980 of my life in response to this love. And so these two forces, the fear of Christ, the negative charge, 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:17.279 and the love of Christ, the positive charge, they electrified Paul's heart and they empowered his 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:26.079 ministry of reconciliation. So what does this mean for us? What does this mean for how we think about 00:14:26.079 --> 00:14:32.799 our lives, our relationships, in particular, our broken relationships? And we all have them. 00:14:33.500 --> 00:14:40.279 We all have them. I have them. I've been struggling this past weekend with broken relationships in my 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:51.639 family, in the broader church community. This is reality for all of us. So what does this mean? 00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:57.839 Well, the ministry of reconciliation, powered by the fear and love of Christ, has a vertical dimension 00:14:57.839 --> 00:15:05.659 and then it has a horizontal dimension. The vertical dimension is what makes possible the horizontal 00:15:05.659 --> 00:15:12.079 dimension. So reconciliation begins vertically. This is what Paul is showing us here. It begins 00:15:12.079 --> 00:15:17.459 with God and it begins with what God has done for us. And what he's making clear here is that God has 00:15:17.459 --> 00:15:23.339 done everything necessary to reconcile people to himself. Christ's sacrifice is sufficient to atone 00:15:23.339 --> 00:15:28.439 for the sins of all who come to him. What's the problem with that? Not all people come to him. 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:36.860 That's why Paul uses such strong language. He says, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to 00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:41.920 God. And this is not advice. This is not him saying, you know, you should make peace with God. That's 00:15:41.920 --> 00:15:47.100 advice. You'd probably be more at peace in your life if you made peace with God. That's not, the gospel 00:15:47.100 --> 00:15:53.580 is not good advice. The gospel is good news about something that has happened. God is reconciling people 00:15:53.580 --> 00:15:58.740 to himself because of what he's done in Christ. Therefore, we implore you, be reconciled to him. 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:05.340 God has done it. All we need to do is to respond to it. It's here for the taking, but you need to ask. 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:11.139 You need to come to Jesus. That's the vertical reconciliation of the gospel. But then, if you 00:16:11.139 --> 00:16:15.680 look at the rest of this letter and if you look at Paul's other letters and you know anything about 00:16:15.680 --> 00:16:20.759 his life in ministry, that vertical reconciliation then begins to pour out into the community and it 00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:26.399 begins to transform horizontal relationships. And so, those of us who have been reconciled to God 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:31.580 become ministers of reconciliation in the world. We're given the ministry of reconciliation. 00:16:33.120 --> 00:16:39.259 And again, this is fueled by those two great forces, the fear of Christ and the love of Christ. 00:16:39.439 --> 00:16:48.259 And it's very practical. The fear of Christ says what? It says, guess what? Justice does not 00:16:48.259 --> 00:16:55.120 ultimately depend on us. And that is really good news if you're wanting reconciliation. 00:16:56.620 --> 00:17:01.620 We're called by Scripture to pursue justice with every fiber of our being to do all we can to bring 00:17:01.620 --> 00:17:08.500 justice, but we'll never achieve perfect justice. There's always going to be people who never face 00:17:08.500 --> 00:17:13.059 justice in this life. There's always going to be situations where justice is never done. There's 00:17:13.059 --> 00:17:17.940 always going to be people who avoid and escape accountability. There's always going to be people in our lives who 00:17:17.940 --> 00:17:24.200 never even admit they did wrong. And that is going to drive you crazy. That's going to be sometimes as painful 00:17:24.200 --> 00:17:30.640 or worse than the hurt they did to you, was them refusing to admit it. But that does not mean that 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:37.019 justice will not be done. You know, sometimes when I'm meeting with people and we're talking about 00:17:37.019 --> 00:17:43.820 hurt that they've sustained and ways they've been, and we struggle together over this absence of 00:17:43.819 --> 00:17:48.419 justice and why can't there be justice for this, you know, I like to say, you know, sometimes I think 00:17:48.419 --> 00:17:55.059 God says about a particular situation, I want to handle this myself personally. I'm going to handle 00:17:55.059 --> 00:18:02.159 this situation face to face. Justice may not be done by us, but justice will be done, and that day will come. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:09.420 And then even as we confront sin in the world, it's easy when you're confronting sin and seeking 00:18:09.420 --> 00:18:15.740 justice to get filled with a kind of self-righteousness, right? Because you're kind of, you're coming to 00:18:15.740 --> 00:18:20.060 save the day, and you're bringing justice to the oppressed, and you're confronting sin in other 00:18:20.060 --> 00:18:25.640 people's lives, and it's very easy to start to feel good about yourself. Maybe even you're a better 00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:33.540 person than other people. But the fear of Christ reminds us that even as we confront sin, we do so 00:18:33.540 --> 00:18:43.520 as sinners. And believing in the final judgment keeps us humble, right? We say, but for the grace of God, 00:18:44.300 --> 00:18:50.840 I might be where you are right now. And that's how we always confront sin, because of the fear of Christ. 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:57.220 Christ. So in a weird way, believing in the final judgment insulates us from becoming judgmental 00:18:57.220 --> 00:19:02.500 of other people. If you believe in the final judgment, you're not going to be a judgmental person. 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:09.240 Not if you really understand the implications of it. And then along with that, we have the love of 00:19:09.240 --> 00:19:14.339 Christ, the positive charge. Where do we find the kind of love that would compel us to reach across 00:19:14.339 --> 00:19:20.379 dividing walls of hostility and embrace people who have hurt us or wronged us or who are radically 00:19:20.380 --> 00:19:27.860 different from us? Well, we find it in a God who did that very thing for us, right? When we had built 00:19:27.860 --> 00:19:33.480 all of the dividing walls of hostility, separated ourselves from God, and he overcame those walls, 00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:43.400 he sought us out. He proactively initiated reconciliation with us. So our ability to love 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:49.380 others well comes from the way God loves us. That's a core principle in Scripture. The way we love others 00:19:49.380 --> 00:19:54.200 is rooted in how we are loved by God. If you want to become a better lover of others, 00:19:55.340 --> 00:20:00.880 learn to rest in and marinate in and contemplate the love of Christ for you. 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:10.700 So together, fear and love make us capable of extraordinary things. And perhaps the best example 00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:18.900 of this in the Bible anyway is the story of Onesimus. And you may not be familiar with this story because 00:20:18.900 --> 00:20:25.880 we often skip this little book in the Bible. But Onesimus was a slave who stole some money from his 00:20:25.880 --> 00:20:33.259 master Philemon, and then he ran away. So he steals his money, and then he runs. And he meets Paul in Rome, 00:20:33.259 --> 00:20:38.580 and Paul shares the gospel with Onesimus, and Onesimus becomes a Christian, becomes really, 00:20:38.579 --> 00:20:45.000 I think, very useful to Paul. They start to do ministry together. And then as he has come to faith, 00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:49.000 and as he's growing in faith, and as Paul is kind of mentoring him and discipling him, 00:20:49.419 --> 00:20:57.259 they kind of, they make this unthinkable decision. Onesimus goes back to his former master 00:20:57.259 --> 00:21:04.460 to make restitution for the thievery and to seek reconciliation. Now, if somebody came to me and 00:21:04.460 --> 00:21:09.220 said, I was a slave, but I escaped and I stole some of my master's money, I would be like, yes! 00:21:09.880 --> 00:21:18.500 Well done! Stick it to him! He deserves it! But the fear of Christ, perfect judgment, right? 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:23.539 Thievery is wrong. It doesn't matter who you stole from. It doesn't matter how justified you may be. 00:21:23.539 --> 00:21:33.460 And the love of Christ, Christ made possible reconciliation with people who had betrayed him, 00:21:34.279 --> 00:21:42.819 who were his enemies, right? Who killed him. And so the fear of Christ and the love of Christ 00:21:42.819 --> 00:21:50.039 working together, Onesimus decides to go back to make restitution for the money that was stolen 00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:54.899 and to seek reconciliation. In his letter to Philemon, Paul says, maybe the reason for this 00:21:54.899 --> 00:22:00.279 whole thing, maybe the reason that Onesimus left was so that he might be able to return to you, 00:22:00.500 --> 00:22:09.799 not as a slave, but as a brother. A transformed relationship. And then Paul says, whatever he 00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:17.579 stole from you, put it on my account. I'll pay it all back if it means that you all can be brothers. 00:22:17.579 --> 00:22:23.879 And a story like this, you wouldn't hear a story like this very often today. A story like this only 00:22:23.879 --> 00:22:30.240 makes sense in light of the gospel because we see echoes of the fear and the love of Christ 00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:35.299 reverberating throughout this story, reverberating throughout these relationships. 00:22:36.879 --> 00:22:41.519 So let me ask you this, where are the broken relationships in your life? I referenced that 00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:49.599 at the beginning. Maybe it's with a mom or a dad. Maybe a sibling. Maybe it's a former friend. 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:58.339 Maybe it's a former co-worker or boss. Maybe an ex. Maybe somebody in this room. 00:23:00.660 --> 00:23:04.460 The question to leave you with is simply this, what might it look like for the fear 00:23:04.460 --> 00:23:13.380 and the love of Christ to echo and reverberate throughout those relationships? What might become 00:23:13.380 --> 00:23:24.819 possible? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this, and reconciliation, like everything in your 00:23:24.819 --> 00:23:32.240 kingdom, is a profound mystery. It's something that ultimately depends on your Holy Spirit. 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:38.539 And we pray that as you are a God who is able to do far more abundantly than we can ask or even 00:23:38.539 --> 00:23:45.839 imagine. As with us, things are impossible, but with you, nothing is impossible. I pray, Lord, 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:54.500 that you would do the impossible in us. Soften hearts. Open us up to what you might be leading us to do 00:23:54.500 --> 00:24:00.059 in these relationships that we are thinking of. And we pray this, Lord, not only that we might find 00:24:00.059 --> 00:24:06.139 peace with one another, but that we might enact your peace in the world, that we might live in line 00:24:06.139 --> 00:24:12.839 with your vision that one day we will all be one great united family centered on the throne. 00:24:13.960 --> 00:24:18.519 And we pray this, Lord, ultimately for our good and your glory. In your Son's name, amen. 00:24:18.519 --> 00:24:29.339 Now, friends, I'm going to invite you to stand. And given the fact that this is a kind of shortened 00:24:29.339 --> 00:24:37.359 service because we have our members meeting, we are going to respond to God's Word by confessing our 00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:44.420 faith using the Nicene Creed. Brothers and sisters, what do we believe? We believe in one God, the Father, 00:24:44.420 --> 00:24:52.060 the Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is visible and invisible. We believe in one Lord, 00:24:52.200 --> 00:25:00.080 Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, 00:25:00.539 --> 00:25:08.279 true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made. 00:25:08.279 --> 00:25:15.319 For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the 00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:22.559 Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:28.920 and was buried. On the third day, he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into 00:25:28.920 --> 00:25:35.220 heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living 00:25:35.220 --> 00:25:42.319 and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of 00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:49.140 life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, 00:25:49.579 --> 00:25:55.259 who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. 00:25:55.779 --> 00:26:01.240 We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead 00:26:01.240 --> 00:26:04.200 and the life of the world to come. Amen. 00:26:05.220 --> 00:26:06.220 Amen.