Father, Son, & Holy Spirit

“Peace be with you.”

Read: John 3:1-17

Let’s Pray:

“Father may your will be done. Jesus may your word be proclaimed. Spirit may your work be accomplished in us we pray, Amen.”

Today is Trinity Sunday and I am going to have to do something that may be really challenging to some of you. But before I get into all that I want to share with you what I think about learning and how hard it is for me.

Ever since I was little I struggled to read. Any time I was expected to think fast I would always fail or it would look like I wasn’t very smart. Learning has also been a challenge for me because I would have to put in more time to do it than anyone else. I had a bad long term memory and so anything I learned wouldn’t stick around for very long. Not only that, I was developmentally delayed in that while everyone my age were understanding concepts I seemed to be a few years behind.

Knowing all this about myself, When God was calling me into ministry, I initially shrugged it off because there is no way God would call someone into a position that they are not fully equipped to do. I had a fear of reading out loud because of who slow I was due to my dyslexia and having to sort out the words in real time as I am reading. Because of my dyslexia, when I spoke in public I would stutter or order my words wrong. All this led to a low self esteem of being dumb and not able to be knowledge in anything, let alone teach others.

Then I read that Moses stuttered. That Jeremiah didn’t know how to speak and God encouragement him and placed His word in Jeremiah’s mouth. Then I knew that God had removed all excuses that I had to keep me from His call. It is a humbling act to have so many disadvantages in reading and learning and then for God to call you to preach and teach. But God, by its own admission, likes to operate like that. He likes to use those who don’t have anything to offer as those agents who will offer everything to others on His behalf. God won’t contend with another person. He doesn’t go toe to toe with a man who if full of himself. God moves on to the next one the one who isn’t full of himself so that He can make full those who are humble with himself. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Why am I sharing this with you?

It because of the message this morning, I am going to ask you to lean in and think about something that may be challenging for you to understand but it is vitally important to you faith. Today is Trinity Sunday, and it is the one time during the year that the Church has set aside to honor and reflect upon The Trinity. Know Church, that I do not think you are ignorant or dumb. I believe that you are able, with the Spirit’s guidance, to understand God in this way. After all, if God has revealed himself as Trinity, then we need to receive him as Trinity and learn what that means. I will not take long or be overly laborious. We will talk briefly about the doctrine of the Trinity and then I will paint a picture of the Trinity for you that the Scriptures offer to us.

I. Trinity

Trinity means “tri-unity.” That may sound like an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp but it is not. Tri-unity, or Trinity is a doctrine that is well established in the Bible. Every page in scripture displays a trinity. As you may know the Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. If you are feeling that your head is about to explode you are in good company because the concept of the Trinity is so infinite and deep that no human mind can actually comprehend its vastness. As soon as you peel back a layer and a new level of deepness is revealed. But just because we cannot fully understand why or how God is triune, that doesn’t excuse us from knowing God in this way, now to trust in its truth.

A. Scripture and Doctrine.

You cannot do a word search for the word “trinity” in the scriptures. You will not find one specific definition of the trinity anywhere in the Bible. This is often the argument used to downplay some doctrines. However, what is in scripture, and all over scripture, are stories, and examples of how the Trinity operates. We know what Scripture is—God’s Word. But maybe less familiar with what Doctrine is which are truths that the Scriptures convey. Though you will not find any specific definitions or the use of the word Trinity, the truths that are in scripture that do communicate that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has been established as a Christian Doctrine. The relationship between Scripture and Doctrine is a bosom buddy. They do hand in hand. Scripture is supremely authoritative and Doctrine share in that authority because it is established by scripture. The doctrine of the Trinity gets its authority from the truths that are set out in scripture. Thus, Scripture that tells the truth about God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is formulated into a doctrine call Trinity and taught to all who believe as something they should believe in.

B. Why the Doctrine of the Trinity is so Important to the Church.

When the church was born on the day of pentecost and they began to meet regularly and learn from the Apostles their numbers began to grow and spread throughout the land. And just like any other movement, they encounter some false teachers, some con-artists who want to jump on this growing movement and turn its gaze from Christ to something else. The Church and its leaders were confronted with three major issues very early on in the Church’s history. These are overly simplistic:

1) How Jewish did the Church need to be?

2) How can Jesus be fully God and Fully Man?

3) If Jesus is fully God then how do we understand God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?

So the leaders of the church, mostly those who studied under one of the Apostles, convened a meeting together to resolve these issues. This first one issue is given to us in the scriptures and companioned by Paul and so that was the easiest to established. The Second and Third would come a little later in the life of the early church. Without getting to deep into Church history all that is important to know is that the two biggest issues that faced the Church dealt with Christology (Study of Christ being fully God and fully man) and Theology (study of God being Triune). And these two issues and the doctrines the Church has developed in his teaching about them is what makes us Christian and separates us from any other religion or semi-Christian religion.

C. What is the Trinity.

Defined by the early church creed, The Athanasian Creed. Read it.

II. The Trinity at Work.

In regards to Salvation this is how the Trinity Works:

A. The Work of The Holy Spirit (v. 3-8)

John 3:3–8 NASB95

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

B. The Work of The Son (v. 11-15)

John 3:11–15 NASB95

11 “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. 12 “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 “No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. 14 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

C. The Work of the Father (v.16-17)

John 3:16–17 NASB95

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

The Image of the Trinity in Marriage:

The Father Presides, The Son engages, The Spirit makes ready