What is the Trinity

April 21st 2024

Series: Who is the Holy Spirit?

Sermon Title: What is the Trinity

Topic: Journey to help us learn who the Holy Spirit was, is, and will always be and how the Holy Spirit is active in our lives today.

Key Passages: John 15:26, Matthew 28:19, Genesis 1:2

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will explore how God is a triune God, one person and yet three persons. This is what is known as the Trinity.

***1st week ODD months add communion & target message at 15 pages.

***1st week EVEN months add space for dedication, baptism, or ministry highlight & target message at 15 pages.

***Green in sermons means illustration, something we are looking for a response from, and/or a picture that goes on the screens.

***Yellow means what is yellow will be on the screens and in the handout.

Dedication, Baptism, or Ministry Highlight:

Sermon:

Hello Family Church!

Family Moment –

Start with something personal from your family life recently to help people get to know you.

PAUSE

Those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church we are SUPER happy you are with us today!

We are in a series that is taking a DEEP dive into who the Holy Spirit actually was, is, and will always be.

For the last two weeks we have focused in on how we KNOW the Holy Spirit is a person just like Jesus or God the Father.

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Today, we are going to look at one of the realities of God that is SUPER HARD to understand….

We’re going to focus in on an idea that undergirds everything about Christianity.

We wanted to park on this topic today because if we can get a basic grasp of it…..

It will also help us better live out the Christian faith.

PAUSE

Most people who believe in God can understand how God the Father creating the universe and all that is in it.

Most people who believe in God understand how Jesus came and lived a real life and gave up his life to save us.

BUT I would venture to say….

Most people who believe in God get stuck on what really is the role of the Holy Spirit….and who is He…

That is why we are in this study….

And today we are going to talk about how the THREE of them.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit are all three unique people…

Yet they are also one person…

Super confusing concept…

But we are going to try our best today to help you all understand this!

PAUSE

See the trinity or how God is three people but one person…is talked about ALL OVER the Bible….

For example…

New Person Bible Connection:

And if you do not have a Bible, that is ok!

After service, we will give you an AMAZING leather-bound study Bible!

Just go to ADD YOUR CAMPUS PLACE and get one for FREE!!!

John 15:26 When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father - the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father - He will testify about me.

See in that verse you have Advocate, or Spirit of Truth, Holy Spirit.

You have Jesus sending the Holy Spirit.

And Holy Spirit coming from the Father.

All three right here…

Jesus even said to baptize everyone in all of their names…

In Matthew 28, seconds before Jesus ascends into heaven…He commissions His followers and says,

Matthew 28:19 Go and make disciples in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…

And this is where we need to park today

To lay a foundation

To gain a basic understanding of Who God is.

To dive deep into a topic about God.

PAUSE

One of the unique features about the God of the Bible is what we refer to as “The Trinity.”

I know this is a “churchy” word, so let’s define it

Look in your notes and the screen…

The Doctrine of the Trinity is the Christian belief that God eternally exists in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Repeat

When we talk about the Trinity… it’s important to note that we are NOT referring to 3 gods when we say Trinity, but 1 God with three expressions of Himself.

I know…. that can sound a little confusing… BUT this IS how we see God reveal Himself throughout HIS Word.

PAUSE

Write this down in your notes…

Holy Spirit is one Person of the Godhead.

Repeat

See this ties to what we have been talking about for the last two weeks….

Some people think that Holy Spirit just serves as the “muscle of God” or an errand boy for Jesus…

They think the Spirit is just some force that is impersonal

BUT this is NOT what the Bible teaches.

In fact, I’ve heard people, pastors even, who apparently when they think about the Holy Spirit, they think about this guy right here Pic of Cousin IT from Adams Family

Do you guys remember “Cousin IT” from the Adams family?

That weird, strange, uncle in the family.

Anyone got a strange uncle or cousin…

If you cannot think of who the weird one is…well it is probably you!

The thing about Cousin IT is nobody knows who he is or what he does; he’s just this weird guy who’s always around.

For a lot of us, this is how we treat the Holy Spirit…

Like some weird Person, who we don’t really know who He is, what he looks like, or what He does.

A lot of Christians even refer to the Holy Spirit as an “IT” rather than a Person.

PAUSE

The Holy Spirit is a Person of the Trinity, He is GOD, and should be understood, approached, and related to and with as just that…. as a Person of the Trinity, as fully God.

Just like The Father

Just like the Son, Jesus

Holy Spirit is a Person and He is fully God just like the Father and just like Jesus.

Think about it.... no one ever talks about Jesus and says, “it says.”

No one would call God the Father an “it.”

To show you how HARD this is for us…

Think about how you generally see reference to Holy Spirit…

It almost ALWAYS has the word “the” in front of it….

Yet… we would never say THE Jesus or THE God.

PAUSE

The trinity of God is a huge topic and can be challenging to comprehend.

The Early Church Fathers tried to help by summarizing this doctrine, saying that God is 1 in Essence and 3 in Being.

Write this down...maybe it will help..…

The Doctrine of the Trinity = 1 God consisting of 3 distinct persons / expressions.

Each Person of the Trinity has a distinct role in our world and in eternity…

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Now I know some people think this concept is absolutely absurd… how can you be 1 and 3 at the same time?

How can a Christian claim to worship 1 God and not 3?

For all my math wizzes here, let me give 2 simple equations, and you solve them:

What is 1 + 1 + 1 =

…..3, right? (slides but not in handout)

Now, let’s change the equation but use the same numbers:

What is 1 x 1 x 1 =

…..1, right?

To be clear, the Trinity isn’t teaching tritheism, which means the worship of three gods.

It IS NOT teaching about “forms of God” - like steam, water, and ice.

It IS NOT teaching that Father, Son, and Spirit are each 1/3rd God.

What we are saying is that God is 1 in essence, 3 in Being.

1 God consisting of 3 distinct Persons / expressions.

PAUSE

Now....many have tried to illustrate the Trinity to help understand it.

Like water existing in solid, liquid, and gas.

Chemically speaking, it’s still H2O, but it takes on different forms.

Or take an egg…. which is made up of a shell, the egg white, and the yolk.

All three are needed for an egg to be complete.

Or take yourself for example…I am a father, a son, and a husband …yet I am only one person

PAUSE

Perhaps the best illustration of the Trinity of God is found within science of all things!

Science teaches us that our universe consists of three things: time, space, and matter.

But let me show you something interesting….

And this is 100% based on science….

Matter = mass + energy + motion Space = length + time + breadth Time = past + present + future

So, the whole universe… and science… is a witness to the character of the God Who made it!

The Trinity.

Even you and I, humankind, who were made in the image of God according to Genesis 1… are a trinity of sorts.

We have a mind, a spirit, and a physical body.

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But here’s the dilemma…. to complicate things even more

The Bible never actually uses the word, Trinity.

There is no Hebrew or Greek word for it…

God never once referred to Himself as Triune.

BUT what we see throughout both the Old and New Testament is the concept of God’s Triune Nature.

In the Old Testament, the Trinity is taught by implication.

In the New Testament, it is taught by direct statements.

And I’d encourage you to go and study more about the Trinity of God… so, we put some verses in your handouts for you to further study the Trinity in the Bible.

This isn’t a complete list, but it will give you some insights.

Further Study about the Trinity in the Bible: Genesis 1, Isaiah 48:16, Matthew 3:13-17, Matthew 28:19, John 20:28, Acts 5:3-4, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Galatians 1:1, Ephesians 3:14-21, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Peter 1:2

PAUSE

So, with our time left….

I want to spend a little time on each of the Persons of the Godhead and get a super-basic understanding of Who they are and what they do.

PAUSE

When we talk about the expression of The Father, one way we can generally understand Him is that He serves as the mind of God.

Write that down…

The Father expresses the mind of God.

Repeat

This isn’t to say He is only that or only the “brains of the operation.”

God the Father expresses Himself throughout history.

We see Him first, in the beginning, in Genesis 1 at the Creation.

When people in the Old Testament interacted with God, it was almost entirely the Father, whom they assumedly were communicating because God had not fully revealed Himself at that point.

So, they didn’t think in terms of Trinity, but simply God - and called Him YAHWEH or Jehovah.

But even these names were foreshadowing the fuller expression and understanding of the Godhead, which would be revealed as history unveiled itself.

PAUSE

There are times in the Old Testament, when God would reveal Himself and speak directly to someone.

Moses and the burning bush are an example of this.

Father God showed up in the form of a burning bush.

Moses immediately knew it was God.

Then God spoke to Moses, revealing something about Himself, His nature, His plans, and our purpose.

PAUSE

In Exodus God hardened the heart of Pharoah.

The Father told the leaders how to build the Tabernacle and Temple with VERY detailed instructions in our Bible.

The Father did all kinds of miracles through prophets, kings, and people to move forward His plan and purpose.

PAUSE

In the New Testament, God the Father takes a step back from the leading character to usher in the second person of the Trinity, Jesus.

God the Father is visible, and He is revered.

However, we start to see Jesus become the focus.

Father God is present and vocal at Jesus’ baptism when He speaks and says, “this is my Son in Whom I am pleased.”

Father God is clearly present and engaged at Jesus’ death when Jesus calls out to heaven and speaks to His Father.

In fact, Father God is mentioned and understood more clearly because of Jesus the Son.

PAUSE

Now, let’s talk about God the Son or Jesus.

When we talk about God the Son, it becomes easier to understand because Jesus became a human like you and me.

He taught us and clarified things and even made direct statements about His purpose….

Write this down

Jesus The Son expresses the heart of God.

Repeat

Again, this is not to oversimplify things, but to help us begin forming a biblical framework about God.

Jesus is FULLY God and has always existed.

Like the Father, we see the Son present and active at the beginning, at Creation…

Genesis 1 tells us that all 3 Persons of the Trinity are involved and even says, “let US make man in OUR image.”

Jesus is known to have been the Word of God.

So, when creation was “spoken” into existence, it was Jesus the Son Who spoke.

There are prophecies written about Jesus in the Old Testament, so evidently, people knew something about the Son.

PAUSE

Greater clarity regarding the Son comes when Jesus left heaven and became like His creation….

The birth, life, and ministry of Jesus revealed His Nature and purpose.

Jesus expresses the heart of God to save people from sin and death, bring them into salvation and eternal life!

And Jesus said he would send us a helper to help us bring others along to heaven with us!

Jesus sent us Holy Spirit to help us until Jesus returns.

PAUSE

This brings us to the third person of the Trinity.

Here is a way to think about the Holy Spirit….Write this down….

Holy Spirit expresses the movement of God.

Repeat

In the Old Testament, we see Holy Spirit, along with Father and Son in the beginning, at creation.

The Bible says in

Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters

The Spirit breathes life into the nostrils of Adam in Genesis 2:7…

Psalm 104:30 confirms that the Spirit gives life to humanity.

Holy Spirit is actively, powerfully, and intentionally involved from the beginning.

PAUSE

As you work through the Old Testament, you see His activity continue as the Spirit of God is frequently mentioned.

Holy Spirit empowered judges, warriors, and prophets in ways that gave them extraordinary power to accomplish special tasks. (Num. 2718, Judg. 3:10, 6:34)

Holy Spirit guides people (2 Sam. 23:2, Ezek. 2:2)

Holy Spirit helped people anticipate Jesus before He came to earth (Is. 11:1-5)

When we step into the New Testament, starting the Book of Acts, which we just finished studying, you see Holy Spirit doing a lot of things:

Pointing people to Jesus as the only source of salvation,

emboldening Christians to share their faith,

equipping Christians to special service,

and empowering Christians with Jesus-honoring abilities!

PAUSE

Let me wrap this up today saying this….

I know this is a lot of heady stuff…

This can be hard to understand…

This can be hard to explain…

However, we wanted to spend time talking about this to help us all grow in our knowledge of God and how he works in our lives….

To ensure we understand Who the God of the Bible is.

PAUSE

Now let me invite you back next week.....

Next week will NOT be this deep or hard to understand, I PROMISE!

Next week we will begin looking at how the Holy Spirit was active and working in the Old Testament….

PAUSE

Let me share your life application with you today….

For those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church.

We end our messages with a Life Application.

It is simply something to help you go home and process this message with someone else.

Something to help you continue to ponder how you can apply today's message into your life.

So here is what I want you all to spend some time processing and talking with someone about.

Life Application: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ALL want to be a part of your life. How could you invite them ALL into your life in a greater measure?

As a result of today’s message, I will _________________________.

Prayer:

Make sure to do salvation call!

Offering:

Thank you all for being here today!

If you would like to continue your worship through giving, there are offering boxes by the doors as you exit or behind me on the screens you can see other ways to give here at Family Church.

You can also place any connection cards you filled out in there.

***Each week we want to highlight a different way to give.