John 3:22-36 Cross Reference

Intro

Why are we looking at the Trinity this evening

We saw this morning that Jesus is supreme

But we also something else in verses 31-36

That is God the father

and God the Spirit

We see in John 3:33

those have affirmed that God is true

in 34 we see

The one who God sent

Speaks Gods words

then in the latter part of 34 we see he gave the Spirit

Without measure

in V 35 we see that the father loves the son, and has given all things into his hands

Thats interesting.... We have seen the trinity through our entire walk thus far but this morning

And this week rather during my study of the section

This latter section to be exact

The trinity was just so present that I knew that we should dig a little deeper into it tonight

Maybe on the horizon we can divide this up over 3 evening services and really dive into each person on the trinity

But for tonight, we are going to get or give

an overview of trinity

So.... if you weren’t already confused as to how exactly the trinity works

Then hopefully I dont make it worse

A friendly caveat though, if you do struggle with the doctrine of the trinity

it is ok!

It is probably the most difficult concept for us

with our current minds to comprehend

again, as we discussed this morning

some things we wont fully grasp or understand until we get to the other side

Remember we speak in earthly terms

yet He and this concept of the trinity is definitely one of the heavenly things that we may not fully be able to understand

And honestly, there is no perfectly completely way to understand it

However, we can try

and it is defintily a concept we need to be able to defend or define when questioned

See the trinity is a large argument point I guess

for a lot of folks

Mormons or those that belong to the Latter Day Saint movement are in this sect

They deny the trinity

Mormons affirm the unity of the 3 persons of the trinity

as in they are in relationship in purpose and mind

however, the are 3 separate beings

Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the trinity

they believe God as the Father

but that Jesus and the spirit are separate

and that Jesus is a created being as in he is the son of God. But not how we interpret it

Another “big” one is muslims or islam

Muslims flat our reject the trinity

That allah is one

Jesus is just a great profit

Finally, Judaism or the Jews

do not believe in the trinity

they believe this idea to be polytheistic

and they and we honestly are monotheistic

which mean we believe in one God

So!

These 4 religions I just spoke of are not Christian

I know mormanism, and jehovah witnesses like to operate under the flag of Christianity

However, they are not Christians because of the way they view Jesus most specifically

So, this is something we need to be aware of and something we need to able to defend

It is biblical

however, the word trinity is not found in scripture

it is a term used to describe the triune God

So.. Let us look at scripture to see what the bible says about the trinity

There is one God

we agree with the muslims and jews when we say there is one God

Deuteronomy 6:4 ““Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

1 Corinthians 8:4 “About eating food sacrificed to idols, then, we know that “an idol is nothing in the world,” and that “there is no God but one.””

Galatians 3:20 “Now a mediator is not just for one person alone, but God is one.”

1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,”

The trinity consists of 3 Persons

What what?

try to explain person

Heres a quote that will i hope attempt to explain it

When we talk about God, we are using the word Person to show that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each have personhood or personality. That is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each have intellect, emotion, and volition. Any being with rationality, emotion, and a will can be considered a person; thus, human beings are persons, but so are angelic beings and the Divine Being. The definition of person cannot include physicality for the simple reason that human beings do not cease to be persons after death. A dead person’s body is left behind to decay, but his true self—his personhood—lives on in either heaven or hell.

Scripture uses plural many times when describing God a lot

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.””

Genesis 3:22 “The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.””

Genesis 11:7 “Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.””

And this is just in Genesis

There are several other passages that are just like this

I use these out of Gen so that we see the triune God has always been there

Now we saw that God is often referred to as plural

yet, we see that he is distinguished from one another

The Lord has a son

Psalm 2:7 “I will declare the Lord’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”

Psalm 2:12 “Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment. All who take refuge in him are happy.”

Proverbs 30:2–4 “I am more stupid than any other person, and I lack a human’s ability to understand. I have not gained wisdom, and I have no knowledge of the Holy One. Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his hands? Who has bound up the waters in a cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is the name of his son— if you know?”

We see the Spirit is distinguished from the The LORD

Numbers 27:18 “The Lord replied to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man who has the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him.”

John 14:16–17 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.”

Each member of the trinity is God

The father is God

John 6:27 “Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.””

Romans 1:7 “To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 1:2 “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”

The Son is God

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Romans 9:5 “The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.”

Colossians 2:9 “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,”

The Holy Spirit is God

Acts 5:3–4 ““Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people but to God.””

1 Corinthians 3:16 “Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you?”

Ok, now that we have established that there is biblical proof to the fact that God is triune

That God is 3 persons yet all 3 persons are one God

Lets look at the fact that there is subordination within the trinity

See scripture shows that the Holy Spirit is subordinate to the Father and the Son

and the Son is subordinate to the Father

Confused yet lol

But the fact that one is subordinate to the other doesn’t mean that

they are less God, their deity remains in tact

This is an internal relationship that they each possess

Concerning the son look at

Luke 22:42 ““Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.””

John 5:36 ““But I have a greater testimony than John’s because of the works that the Father has given me to accomplish. These very works I am doing testify about me that the Father has sent me.”

John 20:21 “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.””

Concerning the Holy spirit see

John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.”

John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.”

John 16:13–14 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

Finally, lets look at the differant tasks each member or person of the trinity has

The Father Initiates all things

He is the ultimate source or cause of the universe 1 Corinthians 8:6 “yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him.”

Divine revelation Revelation 1:1 “The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,”

Salvation John 3:16–17 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

And Jesus’ human works John 5:17 “Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.””

The son is the agent through whom the father does all of these things

The creation and maintenance of the universe 1 Corinthians 8:6 “yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him.”

divine revelation Matthew 11:27 “All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him.”

salvation Matthew 1:21 “She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.””

John 4:42 “And they told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world.””

The Father does those things listed above through the son

who functions as his agent

The Holy Spirit is the means by whom the Father does the following things

and they should sound familiar

Creation and maintenance of the universe Genesis 1:2 “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

Divine revelation 2 Peter 1:21 “because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Salvation Titus 3:5 “he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus’ works Acts 10:38 “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him.”

Sum this up

they all have separate yet similar jobs all the jobs are done by different means

Illistrations have been attempted but even they fall short

what are some you have heard?

those are all parts of one things not the thing itself

So our biggest take away from this is that

The father is God

The Son is God

The Holy spirit is God

They all work together!