November 15 2026

Frankie / General Adult

The Creeds / Faith / Ephesians 4:1–6

The Purpose of the Creeds 1: The Household of the Spirit — Rediscovering the Communion of Saints

1.1 When I was growing up, our family lived in the city, but it wasn't a wealthy neighbourhood. We didn't have much. There were no safe parks, no clean playgrounds, and nowhere for kids like us to play. So, the church became our playground. When we walked through those church doors, we found toys, a safe place to run around, and best of all, there was always something to eat. To us kids, the church simply meant warmth, safety, and a welcoming home.

1.2  However, when I was in high school, something happened that completely changed that picture. It made me really question: what is the Church, really? One afternoon, a few neighbourhood kids came into our church building to play. While they were playing, they found some snacks in the kitchen and ate them. Suddenly, an elder of the church caught them. His face turned red with anger, and he began to yell at those terrified kids. He shouted:

1.3  “The church is a holy place! How dare you mess up God's house! Taking this food without permission is a sin—you're disrespecting God!" Do you know what those kids had eaten? It was just a single bag of chips. Just one bag of chips. Those scared children ran out the door and into the street. And they never came back. Not even once. 

1.4  Looking at that empty doorway after those kids ran away, I had to ask myself: What really is the Church? As we worship today, here is the one truth I’d like you to remember:

The Church is not a club or a service we consume. It is a spiritual family we belong to. To say the Creed means we stop living alone, and we come together at Christ's table.

1.5 So, from today to next Sunday, as a wrap-up of the series of the Creeds, I’d like to deal with the purpose of the Creeds. Let us read Ephesians 4:1-6, and Acts 2:42-47 to begin.

Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Acts 2:42–47 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

2.1 To get started with the sermon today, I'd like to ask you a simple question: 

When you hear the word church, what is the first image that comes to your mind?

2.2   For many of us today, a few common pictures come to mind right away. Maybe you picture a building with a cross on top that you visit once a week. Or maybe you think of church as a place to get an emotional boost—like a shop where we act like customers: judging the music, checking the room temperature, and deciding whether the sermon was good enough for our taste. Or maybe, for some of you, the word church just brings painful memories—church politics, broken promises, and deep hurts. So this morning, I’d like to invite you to hit the pause button. Let's set aside all our assumptions. For the next few minutes, let's stop thinking like customers asking:

• What can this church do for me?

• Does this place fit my lifestyle?

2.3 Let's also let go of the big lie of our culture: the idea that Christian faith is just a private deal between 'Jesus and me'—and that being part of a local church is just an optional hobby. 

2.4 Let's lay down our doubts, our tiredness, and all our customer demands. Let's start fresh today. Because before the church was an institution, before it had buildings, programs, or denominations—it was a powerful movement that turned the entire Roman Empire upside down. 

2.5 Now that we've cleared away our modern ideas, let's look back through history. In the year 381, facing huge pressure from the Roman Empire and painful theological battles, the early Church stood together to declare what the Body of Christ truly is. Let's read these powerful words from the Nicene Creed together on the screen :

 We believe in one, holy, catholic (universal), and apostolic Church.
(Amen.)

2.6 Notice those four core words: One. Holy. Catholic—meaning universal. Apostolic.
Where did these words come from? They weren't written by scholars sitting comfortably in their offices. They were born in the dusty living rooms of Jerusalem, and they were tested in Roman prisons. Let's step back into that world and see what they saw.

3.1 Imagine that first-century room in Jerusalem. You can smell the warm, fresh bread. Look at who is sitting together around that table: a wealthy merchant sitting right next to a poor, dirty day labourer. An elderly widow sharing a meal with someone who used to be an outsider. Watch what they do. Someone breaks a piece of bread and gives it to a hungry stranger. Another person sells a piece of land and brings the money to help others, with a genuine smile. Here, the bread isn't locked away in a cabinet. No one is shouting at children over a bag of chips. In this house, holiness doesn't push the hungry away—true holiness feeds them.

3.2 Now, look at a cold, damp prison in Rome. There sits the apostle Paul, chained to a Roman guard. He is writing a letter to the church in Ephesus—a church on the verge of splitting apart over cultural and racial tension. Paul looks down at his heavy chains, and he tells them:

I am tied up with Roman iron, but you are tied together by the Holy Spirit. Don't let your pride break what Christ put together with His own blood! 

3.3 Now, think about our world this morning. We carry smartphones that connect us to the whole world, but we are the loneliest people in history. We drive home, push a button to close the garage door, punch in our code, and lock everyone out. And too often, we bring that exact same habit right into church. We sit in our comfortable chairs, stare at the back of someone's head for an hour, listen to the sermon, and the second the service ends—we make a run for our cars. Nobody knows our names. Nobody knows the heavy burdens, the quiet tears, or the money problems you carried through those doors today. We are sitting in a room full of people, but we feel totally alone.

3.4 Look at the contrast:

In Jerusalem, a warm table full of bread shared with everyone.

In Rome, a prison where enemies became a family.

And here today, our church, where we often sit in quiet, polite isolation.

3.5 How did we get so far from that open table in Jerusalem to an elder yelling over a bag of chips? How did the living body of Christ turn into a religious vending machine, where we just pay our time and expect a service? To answer this, we need to look back at the heart of the Gospel—and rediscover how God actually came down to us.

4.1 Let's go back to my story for a moment. Why did that elder yell at those children? This is because in his mind, faith was about climbing up to God. It was about strict rules, traditions, and keeping the carpets clean. When we think faith is about our own climb up to God, we become defensive. We judge others, and we protect our own little space.
But the Apostles' Creed says: 'I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church.' The Church is not just a club we build with our own effort. The Church is born from the Holy Spirit. 

The good news of Jesus isn't about humans climbing up; it's about God coming down. It is God the Son stepping into the dirt of our world, into the womb of an ordinary girl, all the way to a painful cross. And at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down to live inside ordinary, broken people. God didn't build a closed fortress. He set up His home right in the messy living rooms of sinners. That means true holiness isn't about running away from the mess—true holiness steps right into the mess to bring life. 

4.2   Listen to what Paul writes from his prison cell:

“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all…”

Look at what Paul is doing here! He does not say, “Ephesians, you need to work harder to manufacture unity.” Unity is not something human diplomacy creates. 

Our unity is rooted in the deep oneness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are completely One. And because of that, every single one of us baptized into Christ belongs to each other. Our unity doesn't depend on whether we vote for the same party, how much money we make, or whether we have the same personality. When Christ saved you, He didn't just hand you a private VIP ticket to heaven.
He placed you into a living, breathing Body. 

Remember what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12:21, 26:

1 Corinthians 12:21 ESV

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

1 Corinthians 12:26 ESV

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

To look at another believer and say, "I have no need of you," is spiritual blindness. And to say, "I love Jesus, but I don't need the local church," is like looking at a human head and saying, "I want your head, but I have no use for your physical body."

4.3 This brings us to the very center of the Apostles' Creed: 'the communion of saints.'
In the early church, this phrase had two beautiful meanings.

First, Sancta—meaning holy things.

It means we share the holy gifts of God together. We are washed in the same baptism, fed by the same Word, and we drink from the same cup of grace at the Lord’s Table. Before the cross, every single one of us comes with empty hands. We all receive the exact same bread of heaven.

Second, Sancti—meaning holy people.

Because we share those holy things, we belong to God's holy people—each other. In an early Christian writing called The Shepherd of Hermas, the church is compared to an elm tree and a grapevine. 

The poor believer is like the elm tree. It might look dry and have no fruit, but its trunk is strong, and its roots run deep in prayer. The wealthy believer is like the grapevine. It has plenty of fruit, but it cannot stand up by itself. Without support, its fruit falls to the ground and rots in the mud.

But when the vine climbs up that elm tree, something wonderful happens: 

The elm lifts the vine up, and the vine shares its fruit. They need each other! The wealthy share their bread; the poor share their prayers. Neither one can make it alone. 

4.4 As the fourth-century Church Father Gregory of Nyssa warned: 

A theological creed that does not result in ethical transformation and active discipleship is a dead corpse.

Reciting the Creed is not passing an intellectual theology exam. To confess the Creed is an act of Nachfolge—costly following of Jesus. 

John made this unmistakably clear in 1 John 3:17–18:

1 John 3:17–18 ESV

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

If what we believe doesn't open our wallets, if it doesn't open our front doors to share a meal, and if it doesn't soften our political and personal prejudices at the Lord’s Table—then our theology is just empty noise, like a clanging cymbal.

4.5 So, let's look at that church doorway one more time. That elder only saw dirty carpets and a missing bag of chips. But the Creed shows us something very different: the family of the Holy Spirit. A home where hungry kids are welcomed to the table, where lonely people are known by name, and where hurting strangers become family. So now, the question comes back to you and to me: 

How will we live out this confession tomorrow morning? 

5.1 At the beginning of our worship today, I shared this sentence with you. Now, having walked through the dusty rooms of Jerusalem, the chains of Paul, and the descending grace of the Holy Spirit, listen to this truth again with new ears and an open heart:

“The Church is not a club or a service we consume. It is a spiritual family we belong to. To say the Creed means we stop living alone, and we come together at Christ's table.”

5.2 God's call to us today isn't just about theology in our heads. It calls for a real response from our hearts: 'Here I am, Lord.' Let's be honest with ourselves today. We say we follow a Saviour who stepped down into our world, but we still try to live completely on our own. We have protected our comfort just like that elder guarding his church building. We kept our distance, locked our doors, and ran to our cars. Today, let's put down our defenses. Let's lay down our stubborn pride at the foot of the cross, and say to Jesus:

Lord, here is my life. Make me a real part of your Body. 

5.3 How do we actually live out this confession starting tomorrow morning? Here are three simple, practical steps we can take this week:

First, open your table (Acts 2:46).

Break the habit of rushing out to your car right after service. During this month of November, look around this room and find one person, one student, or one family you don't know yet. Invite them over for lunch, or take them out for a simple cup of coffee. Don't just talk about the weather. Ask them: 

‘How has this year been for you? Is there anything heavy you are carrying right now?' 

When you share a meal with an open heart, your kitchen table becomes a sacred place.

Second, protect the peace (Ephesians 4:2–3).

Paul begged from his prison cell: 

'Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.'

Is there someone here you feel awkward around, distant from, or even annoyed by? Don't let anything break the bond that Jesus paid for with His own blood. Take the first step this week. Send that short text message. Make that quick phone call. Just say: 

'I appreciate you as my brother, my sister in Christ. I'm sorry for keeping my distance.'

Put down your pride for the sake of the church family.

Third, share what you have (Acts 2:44–45).

Remember those kids who were chased away over a single bag of chips? Never again. Look around our church and our neighbourhood. There are single parents quietly skipping meals, students stressed about bills, and families struggling to get by. Find one real need this week and meet it quietly. Drop off an anonymous grocery card, pay a small bill for someone, or bring over a hot meal without making a big deal out of it. Let's show the world that the communion of saints isn't just nice talk, but the real love of Jesus in action. 

5.4 Years ago, when those frightened children ran out of our church doors, they were running away from a cold building full of rules and judgment. Today, Christ is calling us to throw those doors wide open. Let's become a church where the lonely are welcomed home, where the hungry find food, where the hurting find healing, and where people who used to be strangers become family at the Lord’s Table. When we live like this, the world around us will look at our lives and finally see what that ancient Creed meant all along:  

"We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."