19th April 2026

Statement of Faith.  2 of 4. 19/04/26

Readings: Matthew 16:13-20 & 1 Peter 2:4-10

This is our second message about our Statement of Faith. If you weren’t here last week, I do encourage you to read what I said about what it is, why we have it, and also about the authority of the Bible, by visiting our internet site and looking in “sermon archives”. 

We established that the Bible is “verbally inspired by God (God-breathed), without error, and the complete revelation of his will for the salvation of men”.  It is 100% true and 100% reliable.

So now that we believe the Bible, we can use it to substantiate the other 10 articles, of which we’re going to look at the first 3 this morning. 

Article n° 1. There is from all eternity one God in three persons: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. He is perfect and infinite in every way.

Matthew, one of the men who had spent 3 years with Jesus, listening to, and trying to understand all that he said, someone who had every opportunity to ask questions and get detailed explanations, reported how, one day, Jesus had commissioned him and the 11 others to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.“

The concept of the Trinity isn’t easy, I know. Even eminent theologians struggle to explain it. I am far from being one of them, but the way I see it is this.  There is only ONE God, but he is infinitely MORE than any one of us, or all of us put together, and so wildly beyond our bravest attempts to understand him, that this is how he has chosen to paint himself for us, to present himself to us, if you like. 

He is a tender, loving Father, although quite stern at times, but at the same time he is a saviour for those who chose his mercy, his grace and his Lordship, and he is present everywhere, always, all-knowing, all-powerful, infinite, a Spirit, a Ghost in King James language.  

If he wasn’t all of those things, and more, all at once, then he wouldn’t be God. 

Our second article talks about Jesus, and we might think that we know all about him, so there’s no more really that needs to be said. But there is because he is the “kingpin”.   A kingpin is a bolt in a central position, like the pivot on an articulated lorry. It’s a person or thing that is essential to the success of an organization or operation. So central, so essential in this case, that it has to be worth talking about. 

Charlotte and I were excited to see, yesterday, that our eldest grandson, aged 17, posted on his Instagram feed “Tell the world about Jesus.”  And he’s right.  The world needs to hear about Jesus today as much, if not more, than ever it did.

In a recent article about Mark’s gospel, the Biola Christian University said that Mark wrote it “to prove to the Gentiles that Jesus was, and is, the Messiah, the Son of God, the long-awaited saviour, sent to rescue and restore mankind to right relationship with the Trinity.” 

“His unexpected words and unorthodox actions,” it said, “caused many to ultimately reject His claims of divinity. Like people today, there were those who acknowledged Him as a great prophet, but could not bring themselves to worship Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). 

Mark tells how, at his baptism, God’s voice from heaven declared, “You are My beloved Son”. And then again, at the transfiguration, God the Father verbally stated once more, “This is my beloved Son”. 

These are all undeniable proof texts that lend credibility to Christ’s claim of being God’s chosen one. 

In our first reading from Matthew 16, we heard Peter acknowledging Jesus as the Christ.  Mark also reported this event, the first ‘deity-identifying’ statement of faith that any of Christ’s close followers ever verbalised. And as we heard, Jesus answered Peter by saying, “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). 

And then, ironically, it was the gentile centurion at the crucifixion, someone who played a central role in Christ’s execution, witnessing it first-hand not because he wanted to, but because he had to, that gave that full-throated proclamation “Truly he said, this Man really was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39).

And so, our article 2 says that Jesus Christ is both true God and true man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He died as a sacrifice on the cross, substituting Himself as the just for the unjust. All who believe in Him are justified by His shed blood.  He rose from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures. He is our High Priest, and as such he now sits at the right hand of the Divine Majesty. He will return to establish His kingdom of justice and peace.

I don’t suppose that any of us would challenge any of that. This, of course, is the cornerstone of our Christian Faith.  If we don’t believe it then we’re not Christians. There are any number of Bible verses that I could quote to substantiate it, and some of them are listed here in our Statement of Faith. 

But one that isn’t is in Psalm 118, where the author, almost certainly David, prophetically described Jesus as “the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, he added, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes.”

A cornerstone is the stone at the very centre of an arch.  It bears the full weight of the arch itself, coming from each side, sometimes all four sides, but also everything above it, passing it down the pillars to the foundations.  It’s THE most important and critical stone in the entire structure.

Jesus was rejected on Good Friday, but by Easter Day he had become the cornerstone of his church, and that fact is the cornerstone of our faith.

As we heard in our second lesson, Peter, quoting the prophet Isaiah, referred to Jesus as “the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him and that you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Some 300 years after Isaiah, a prophet called Daniel had a vision in which, he said, he looked, and there before him was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

When Jesus was being tried, just before his crucifiction, the high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”  
“You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:64)

OK, enough said. Let’s move on quickly. What about this then?  The Holy Spirit is a divine person, sent to dwell in the believer, to guide, to teach, to empower, and to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. That’s Article n° 3.

A few minutes ago, talking about the Trinity, I described the Holy Spirit as being God, present everywhere, always, all-knowing, all-powerful, infinite. God is one person, so the Holy Spirit is God.  We can’t push him to one side and say, God the Father OK, God the Son, absolutely, but I’m not sure about this Holy Spirit business, I’ll just put that to one side, thank you.  It would be literally like denying that the right half of your head exists.

What muddies the waters for us, for some of us anyway, is what we see in Pentecostal churches, speaking in tongues, prophesying, being slain in the spirit, and so on, but we’ll be talking more about this when we get to article 7. 

If you love me, keep my commands said Jesus.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:15-16)

Those of us who are married know that there is a dimension to the relationship that is way beyond conversation, having fun together, physical interaction, enjoying the same pastimes, and so on.  There’s a “ONE-NESS”, a sort of mutual knowledge that allows us to fully understand that person, to anticipate them even.

That’s like our relationship, with God, it’s on another dimension, it’s “spiritual”, it’s with God through the Holy Spirit, who empowers, who encourages, who inspires, who convicts, who corrects, who guides, and who dwells with us and within us at all times, even when we’re not aware of him.