The Labor, Life, and Love of God.

“Peace be with you.”

Read: John 3:1-17

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

Intro

Trinity Sunday.

A doctrine that is essential for understanding how we are saved, and why we were created.

Jesus teaches Nicodemus How someone comes to see and enter the Kingdom of God.

To “SEE” and “ENTER” the Kingdom, you have to be born again of the Spirit.

I. The LABOR of the Spirit (v. 6-8)

John 3:6–8 NASB95

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.”

The Wind: The Valley of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 36:25–26 NASB95

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

II. The LIFE of the Son (v. 13-15)

John 3:13–15 NASB95

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.

Example: The Bronze serpent on a pole. Numbers 21

1 Peter 2:24 NASB95

24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

III. The LOVE 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 Father’s first act for you was love.

The Father’s first step towards your sin was salvation not judgment.

Application:

A. The Labor, Life, and Love of the Trinity shows us what we are saved from.

A boulder on a dead man.

What ever happened to Nicodemus?

1. Came to Jesus’ defense against.

John 7:50–51 NASB95

50 Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) said to them, 51 “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?”

2. Came to lay Jesus’ body to rest.

John 19:39–40 NASB95

39 Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.

B. The Labor, Life, and Love of the Trinity also shows us What we are saved to.

The whole reason God created us was for us to image Him reflecting the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s relationship to each other and the function of their roles.

Genesis 1:26–28 NASB95

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The Trinity revealed through our lives:

Diversity: The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Father. All three persons are unique and perform different functions within the Godhead.

This means we should not blur the lines as people who bear the image of the Trinity. We all can’t be male. We all can’t be female less we lose part of the image we were created to be. Likewise, A Father has a role, A mother has a role, and a child has a role and a healthy family is one where each member performers their duties according to their roles just like the Trinity.

Each role submits to the other

Each role give glory to the other

Each role doesn’t desire another.

Unity: But The Father is God, The Son is God, and The Holy Spirit is God; they are three persons but one God. This is unity perfected.

This means that while we may have different roles, that each role is equal in status.

A Husband may lead his wife but that does not make the wife and her role any less significant. It also means that Submission is as equally important and valid as Authority.

A child is as important to the family as the parents. But that doesn’t remove the role of a child to obey his parents or for the parents to exasperate their children (Eph 6:4).

We all have a lot of broken relationship and we all poorly execute our roles that we have been given. If we are ever to experience healthy relationships and do better at the positions we hold in our lives we must seek to image the Trinity. We come to know how they function through the scriptures.

If you want to be a better parent you need to look to the Father. If you want to be a better husband you need to look to Jesus, If you want to know how to mature as a christian look to the Spirit, if you want to know how to have better relationships Learn from all three persons of the trinity.

I would venture to say that if you take up the task of getting to know more about the relationship and roles that exist between Father, Son, and Spirit, your understanding of personal relationships that you have in your life and the roles that you fulfill will be wiser and produce healthier relationships and better performance in your roles.