Rooted in the Past - Fundamentals
Main idea:
Healthy christian discipleship is rooted in the witness and example of the past as it seeks to faithfully understand Scripture and live out the mission of Jesus.
Outline:
1. The Bible commands us to be rooted in the past
i. The biblical idea of discipleship includes one generation passing on its understanding of the faith to another
ii. The Holy Spirit is continually active in history, building the church
2. Faithful Christians have always been rooted in the past.
i. Creed/Rule of Faith, Confession/Statement of faith, Catechism
3. Practical implications
◦ A great sense of security in seeing God's work in history
◦ A deeper sense of unity with the body of Christ
◦ A rich heritage of examples and wisdom
Practical steps:
• Understand that you are part of a greater story of faith
◦ consider the faith and life of others, imitate them
• Learn church history
◦ Books
◦ Podcasts
• New City Catechism
• Get a cool print out of the Nicene Creed
Scripture References:
• Matt. 28:19-20
• 2 Thess. 2:15
• Hebrews 13:7
• Jeremiah 6:16
• Acts 28:28-31
• Hebrews 12:1-2
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We continue our series on the fundamentals of what we as a church value as of prime importance.
We have covered some solid ground - Gospel, Scripture, Discipleship, Community
Today we hit our fifth point: Historically rooted.
We believe it is very important to the health of the church and of the individual christian that our discipleship, our spiritual growth - our whole life be rooted and informed in the story of the church in the past.
Some may be skeptical of this kind of thing being essential to the life of the church.
Why do we need other christians and other traditions and creeds? Isn't the Bible enough? Isn't the Bible our only standard?
Isn't the past generations of the church all corrupt and incorrect? Weren't there just a bunch of traditions and ideas that ruined people's view of the church?
1. The Bible commands us to be rooted in the past
• The biblical idea of discipleship includes one generation passing on its understanding of the faith to another
Matt. 28:19-20
19 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, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.
Notice, when we speak of the process of christian discipleship - we are not just talking about memorizing the Bible. We are talking about us teaching each other our understanding and life in the Bible.
That means that we are using our own works to summarize, clarify and explain biblical truth.
God's command of discipleship includes US studying Scripture, and then using our own words, ideas and summaries to explain Scripture.
Human summaries of the faith are not bad - they are actually ESSENTIAL to healthy discipleship.
The NT has a number of phrases that refer to human summaries of biblical truth. Here is one example.
2 Thess. 2:15
"So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.”
Traditions - good traditions are faithful examples and summaries of biblical truth.
Hebrews 13:7
"7 Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith."
People say, "We only need the Bible!" - point them to this verse.
Notice here that there is a generational element to healthy faith - examples and teachings of saints who come before you being passed on and on.
"as you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith...."
There is an inevitable historic component to God's plan of the church. There is a deep interconnectedness with previous generations - with their wisdom, with their experience, with their examples and their faith.
Jeremiah 6:16
This is what the Lord says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths, “Which is the way to what is good?” Then take it and find rest for yourselves. But they protested, “We won’t!”
God is calling the people back to faithfulness to his Word - how does he do it? He does it by calling them to a historic expression of that faithfulness.
• The Holy Spirit is continually active in history, building the church
The book of Acts ends on a very interesting note - Paul is a prisoner in Rome, he preaches a message of conviction to the Jews, and his closing words are -
Acts 28:28-31
28 Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”
And then Luke closes with these words:
30 Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house. And he welcomed all who visited him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
This great book, this great story of the birth of the church - of the spread of the gospel to the empire in ONE generation - it gets to the end and leaves you hanging.
The story is unfinished. The word of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit to build the church continues on to today.
And we are all part of that story.
One of the reasons the church struggles is because every generation thinks that its the only one.
Its not.
We are not the only christians who ever lived. God has been faithfully building the church for 2000 years. And when he calls you into discipleship, when he calls you into the fellowship of his love, into the community of his people, he is inviting you into a loooooong story in which he has been working from generation to generation to preserve his faith.
Healthy discipleship is based on faithfulness from one generation to the next. The Holy Spirit is active in history.
That means that if you are serious about following Jesus, you will be very interested about how previous generations have done it.
We are ALWAYS passing on the teaching of the Bible with a certain historic expression of the faith.
This is why the author of Hebrews
2. Faithful Christians have always been rooted in the past.
There is a general pattern in church history - the worst seasons in the church are the seasons when the focus on the church and its traditions became exclusively focused on itself, and was cut off from the history pattern of faith that came before it.
This is the only way that cults and heresies are born - to take some Bible passage and twist it to a totally new idea. The only people who will be convinced of that will be people who don't know the story of the church and its beliefs.
There is also a pattern of awakening in the church when christians return to the authority of Scripture AND a rediscovery of old historic voices in the church.
This is how it happened for Luther and Calvin in the Reformation. The only way they were able to stand up to the foolish and corrupt teachings of the catholic church is by reading the bible themselves AND by listening to older voices in the story of the church.
They went back to Augustine and to the early church fathers.
How did generational discipleship happen in the church?
• Creed/Rule of Faith - a short summary of the faith that can be easily memorized.
◦ Ex. Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed
• Confession of Faith/Statement of Faith - a longer more extensive summary of detailed doctrines and teachings, usually broken down into topics.
◦ Ex. Westminster Confession of Faith, London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689, Living Word Bible Church Statement of Faith
• Catechism - Question/Answer format statement of faith meant to be memorized, often used for new believers and children.
◦ Ex. New City Catechism
Why are all these necessary and why do we have to write new ones all the time?
Because each generation has to battle slightly different challenges to the truth.
There are two ways that christians get this wrong.
one the one hand we think "well our battles today are totally new, so we don't care what they said back then..."
So they completely ignore the story of the church and foolishly try to figure out there own answers.
On the other hand, poeple say, "The saints of history are the faithful ones. We need to stick to what THEY said. Stop inventing new ideas and new answers. The biblical example is in the past!"
These people fail to face the actual challenges that stand before us.
"imitate their faith..."
Watch how they battled against lies in thier times and learn to do the same in YOUR time.
The correct approach is to learn from the generations of the past to face the future! There is a generational wisdom and power that is passed on in the church.
Turtullian - He is battling against a false teacher named Praxeas who teaches that God is NOT three in one - that God is just one person - just the father (no Son no Holy Spirit)
Turtullian:
"In various ways has the devil rivalled and resisted the truth. ...
We, however, as we indeed always have done ... believe that there is one only God...that this one only God has also a Son, His Word, who proceeded from Himself, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made.
Him we believe to have been sent by the Father into the Virgin, and to have been born of her— being both Man and God, the Son of Man and the Son of God, and to have been called by the name of Jesus Christ; we believe Him to have suffered, died, and been buried, according to the Scriptures, and, after He had been raised again by the Father and taken back to heaven, to be sitting at the right hand of the Father, and that He will come to judge the quick and the dead;
who sent also from heaven from the Father, according to His own promise, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost."
Notice that his statement of faith is VERY similar to the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed.
When you look at early church history you see all these little summaries of faith - and they all say the same thing. They all look at the Bible, and try to summarize it best as they can, and they stand together against the lies that come at them from the world.
Notice his conclusion:
Turtullian:
"That this rule of faith has come down to us from the beginning of the gospel, even before any of the older heretics, much more before Praxeas, a pretender of yesterday, will be apparent both from the lateness of date which marks all heresies, and also from the absolutely novel character of our new-fangled Praxeas."
How does he battle false ideas?
• Scripture
• Creed
He says, "This is not what Scripture teaches, and this is not what Christians have taught from the beginning...This idea is NEW, just like all the heresies."
Orthodoxy precedes heresy. Truth is older than error.
How do we answer people who say they are christians, but they have all these new ideas??
"God accepts everyone" "there is no such thing as judgement for sin and hell" "God accepts all - no matter what there gender ideology is..."
This is not christianity. Orothdoxy precedes heresy. Truth is older than error.
Practical implications
• A great sense of security in seeing God's work in history
◦ there is a way of truth - the rule of faith
• A deeper sense of unity with the body of Christ
• A rich heritage of examples and wisdom
◦ powerful against doubt and attacks on the faith
◦ you are not alone in the spiritual struggles you experience
◦ John Bunyan was imprisoned many years - he had two books. the Bible and Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Hebrews 12:1-2
Christian life that is rooted in the past is a life that cherishes Jesus all the more.
Practical steps:
• Understand that you are part of a greater story of faith
◦ consider the faith and life of others, imitate them
• Learn church history
◦ Books
◦ Podcasts
• New City Catechism
• Get a cool print out of the Nicene Creed