Introducing Others to the God who is Father, Son, and Spirit

Big Idea

Tension: How should the Trinity shape my evangelism?

Resolution: By allowing it to provide compelling reasons for people to embrace Christianity.

Theological Idea: The Trinity should shape my evangelism by allowing it to provide compelling reasons for people to embrace Christianity.

Big Idea: Rather than an obstacle to the faith, the Trinity provides some of the most compelling reasons for embracing Christ.

Outline

Intro: <Drew & Grace>

Explaining: I’m going to assume that most of you claim to believe somewhat in the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Christian doctrine of 3 persons and 1 God

The Father is God

The Son is God

The Spirit is God

The Father is not the Son

The Son is not the Spirit

The Spirit is not the Father

There is only one God

Jesus’ baptism.

The Christian faith is a Trinitarian faith

Praying

Singing

Preaching

Reading

Being part of a local church

If you aren’t engaging in these activities, the degree to which you believe in the Trinity is questionable

Defending

Questioning the premise, “The Trinity doesn’t make sense”

God is transcendent and independent, that is he does not depend on Creation to be who he is

God is love - That is, not only is everything that he does perfectly loving, but he is love itself

If these two things are true, then you have to end up with something like the Trinity, because for God to be love, to truly be generous, means he needs another person to be who he is. But if God is transcendent, then the only way he can really be love, is if he can love another by loving himself. The only way this makes sense is if God is triune.

The premise, “The Trinity doesn’t make sense” is a questionable one.

Embracing - However, I couild be wrong, but this kind of apologetic defense, while sometimes necessary, probably won’t be sufficient to truly evangelize. What you need to do, and this is with evangelism in general, is show how the Trinity appeals to people’s deepest held desires and longings. So, let me give you a couple of ways that it does.

Embracing

Don’t you want a love that is not prone to all the instabilities and inconsistencies and brokenness of this world?

<Ps 46:1-3>

Don’t you long for a love that is beyond the capacity of this world to provide?

“Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”

Don’t you wish you could love better?

<>

Don’t you yearn for a Father who will never disappoint you?

<Father wounds>

Don’t you wish for a Brother that will always stick up for you?

<I have brothers; Joseph>

Don’t you wish you had someone who cared about you more than you care about you?

<Spirit intercedes for us>

Don’t you wish you had someone who loved you even when you weren’t very lovely?

<

You can only introduce other people to this triune God, if you yourself know him. So let me ask you, do you know him? Is he yours’?