During our study we’ll see how God comes into Jonah’s life both directly and indirectly. We will also discover that Jonah is not exactly a sympathetic character. He is petulant and prickly, peevish and pouting, childish and crabby. He is passionately patriotic, ardently nationalistic, staunchly pro-Israel, and fiercely anti-foreigner. In other words, Jonah is a lot like you and me.

To believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, is to confess two things as true. First, we are confessing our belief that God will raise everyone from the dead both those who trusted in Jesus and those who did not. Second, we are confessing our belief that in raising everyone from the dead, God will reward those who trusted in Jesus with everlasting life and that He will punish those who did not trust in Jesus with everlasting judgment.

If you follow Jesus, if you trust Him as Savior, your faith in Him is based on two things: the promise of the cross and the power of the resurrection. The promise of the cross is best captured by the title of the Puritan John Owen’s majestic study, the death of death in the death of Christ. The death of Jesus guarantees everlasting life to all who trust in His death for their sins.

The forgiveness of sins is a blessing of God upon His church. It is achieved by the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, by means of which God considers our sin, to be no sin, or, as sin not committed. God forgives our sin so that we might reflect His glory into the world He created.

So to believe in the communion of the saints is to agree to the importance of a belonging to a community of people who are commtted to loving, serving, and sharing the good news here and around the world (see Christ Chapel’s website: www.christchapelcapecod.org). To believe in the communion of saints is to agree with the following mission statement: Christ Chapel exists to glorify God upwardly in worship and prayer, inwardly by biblical instruction and fellowship, and outwardly through evangelism, missions and community involvement.

We believe the church is holy because God makes its holy by our faith in Jesus. So holiness is both our condition as well as our calling. We are a holy nation called to be holy as God is holy. And although our lives may not always reflect this holiness, we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a people for God’s possession. The church is holy because she has been set apart to carry out the Great Commission.

The Holy Spirit has a particular role and a particular set of skills to help Him fulfill His mission. The mission of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He does this by doing two things at once. The Spirit casts the appropriate amount of light onto the teaching and mission of Jesus Christ. The Spirit also shines the truth about Jesus into peoples’ hearts in order to convince them to put their trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Some will believe. Some will not. Either way, the Holy Spirit is tasked with casting light on Jesus as the Son of God, the Lord and the Savior of a disobedient and defiant humanity.

Comforting words are most needed during a time of crisis. But sometimes comforting words can be spoken before the crisis happens. This is what happened in John 14. Before He was arrested, Jesus spoke comforting words to His Apostles.

The Apostle's Creed is like a map. It may be less real than the Bible, yet it does not diminish its usefulness anymore than the usefulness of a map is diminished by the reality of the terrain it depicts. On its own, the Apostle's Creed has no authority in and of itself. However the truths it declares are rooted and grounded in the reality of the Bible as the Spirit-inspired, Spirit-breathed Word of God. The Apostle's Creed points you to the Bible because the truths it confesses come from the Bible.