3 = 1

Scripture Readings

Matthew 28:16–20 (NLT)

16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted! 18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Focus Statement

Our society teaches us that they we can individually worship God on our own

and that we don’t need other people or religion to be people of faith;

however, God is relational and we are called to be relational too.

Point of Relation

There was a Spanish physician and theologian by the name Miguel Serveto who lived from 1511 to 1553.

He was the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation…

meaning how the blood circulates around the human body.

He was extremely sharp and well versed in many sciences including,

mathematics,

astronomy and meteorology,

geography,

human anatomy,

medicine and pharmacology,

as well as jurisprudence,

translation,

poetry,

theology and the scholarly study of the Bible in its original languages.

And the latter is what he becomes most known for as he participated in the Protestant Reformation.

As such, he came to the belief that the Roman Catholic Church had inserted the Trinitarian formula…which we just recited in the Nicene Creed...

and that it was NOT Scripturally based.

The Catholic Church in France, where he was living at the time, declared him a heretic and he fled France...

They even burned and effigy of him as he fled before he could be arrested.

Well, he had been in a lot of talks with reformers about his ideas...

and they too, being Orthodox Christians, felt he was a heretic...

in particular, his old friend John Calvin.

In a fateful move, Michael Servetus had fled to Geneva and began to spread his ideas there...

Following which he was arrested and, sadly, executed by burning at the stake…with the blessing of John Calvin...

Who had told Servetus before he died that he had tried to get them to execute him in a more humane way…Gee…thank you John Calvin.

Now, of course, I believe the church was then

and always has been wrong in it’s treatment of heretics in centuries past...

Where the church tortured and killed people for having what they believed to be the wrong belief.

For instance, Michael Servetus could have simply been exiled and told to never come back…or face significant jail time...

But they chose to murder him instead.

But what this story shows, egregious actions aside, is that the HOLY TRINITY is an EXTREMELY important and FUNDAMENTAL theological concept to Christians.

Things to Consider

The Holy Trinity is perhaps also the most mysterious of all the beliefs in Christianity.

We can with little effort, envision a God who loves us, who sent us His Son to die for our sins.

We can, if we try, envision Jesus after his death resurrecting.

We can, with a little effort, wrap our heads around that.

But to wrap our heads around the Trinity...

The fact that In the Godhead, we have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit…

all coequal with each other...

All equally the TOTALITY OF GOD...

Meaning that even though their are three distinct personalities in the Godhead...

There still is only ONE TRUE GOD.

How can that be? How can 3 = 1? It makes no sense mathematically...

It seems like utter NONSENSE....yet the Bible does declare this to be true.

There is no exact formula produced in Scripture like our creeds do for us...

But those very creeds are based off of the witness of the Trinity in Scripture.

What Scripture Says

In our passage today we have explicit evidence of the Holy Trinity.

In Matthew 28:18-19 “Jesus came and told his disciples, 'I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,

baptizing them in the name of the FATHER and the SON and the HOLY SPIRIT.”

Emphasis added

While this does not present the formula we find in the Nicene Creed…

the Creed we just professed earlier...

it does lay the ground work for it.

In our passage today, Jesus is commissioning his Apostles to go into the world and make disciples.

In that commissioning proclamation, Jesus says a couple of things that hint at the Trinity.

First, he says that he has been given ALL AUTHORITY in heaven and on earth.

WELL, who gave that to him. Clearly the Father...

We know that God has all authority…by very definition.

So, God (as in the Father) is sharing that authority with the Son (as in Jesus)…meaning God and the Son are coequal.

The Father is not God, more than the Son is...

They both have ALL AUTHORITY in heaven and on the earth.

What’s more…Jesus says that He will be with his Apostles and followers ALWAYS...

Meaning he his transcendent of time and space....

Just as the Father and the Holy Spirit are.

And that brings me to the fact that Jesus specifically names each of the three persons, referring to himself in the 3rd person…

when he says the disciples should be baptizing people

in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Notice…it is NOT in the NAMES of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

It in the NAME…singular.

The Holy Trinity

3 = 1

But there are other places that also affirm the Christian witness to the Trinity:

For instance, in Luke 3:21-22 it says,

“One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized.

As he was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove.

a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”

Father, Son, Holy Spirit...

And then in John 10:30 Jesus proclaims “The Father and I are one.”

In John 14:6-7 “Jesus told [Thomas],

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 3 = 1

And in John 15:26 Jesus states, “But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.”

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 3 = 1.

In Acts 2:33 Peter proclaims, “Now [Jesus] is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven,

at God’s right hand.

And the Father, as he had promised,

gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.”

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 3 = 1

In Acts 20:28, Paul says, “So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—

his church, purchased with [the blood of his OWN Son]—

over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders.”

Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 3 = 1.

The list goes on.

The importance of the Trinity to Christians cannot be understated...

It is the mystery of mysteries, and THAT MYSTERY shows up in our lives and transforms us from who we are to who we were created to be.

The reality of the TRINITY tells us the very nature of God...

God is RELATIONAL…at God’s very core…God is RELATIONAL...

God created us and all of creation to be in RELATIONSHIP...

And God works in and through us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...

Redeeming and Reconciling us to God...

And transforming us into disciples of Jesus Christ who make more disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

What This Means for You

How have you come to understand the Trinity?

Have you given it any thought?

Pause

The fact that in God, there are 3 that equal 1, tells us that for God relationships are at the core of everything.

God would not be God without the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit...

And to deny the TRINITY would be to deny our Christian faith.

What’s more, because God is relational, we are created to be relational too...

That is why it is not accurate to say that one can properly worship God by themselves…on their own

That notion is foreign to the Judeo-Christian faith,

it is foreign to Scripture...

It is foreign to the very makeup of God.

What This Means for Us

How can we as the church affirm the Holy Trinity in all that we do?

How can we, reflect the relationship within the Holy Trinity in our own relationships with each other...

As the Body of Christ?

Let us reflect on the Holy Trinity…on the importance of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead...

And how we are called to mirror God by building relationships with as many people as possible...

bringing them to know our God, in which 3 = 1. Amen? Amen!