“The Trinity”
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Announcements:
-Welcome. I am so glad that you have joined us tonight for our mens Bible Study.
-Wednesday nights start back up this week at 6:00. We hope to see you there.
-This Sunday at 10:30a.m.
Prayer:
As we begin our study tonight on the Trinity one of the biggest questions that we will try to define as well as answer is this. How can God be three persons, yet one God? This is something that many Bible believing Christians have a hard time coming to grips with or making sense of.
*Have someone read this opening paragraph. (page 117)
We may define the doctrine of the Trinity as follows: “God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.”
*Do you have any questions?
Question #1 The first question that we will look at tonight is this. Provide scriptural evidence for the doctrine of the Trinity from both the Old and New Testaments.
One of the things that I think that is important to keep in mind here is that we never see the word Trinity found in Scripture however the idea is shown or taught to us in many places. The word trinity means “triunity or three-in-oneness.”
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
1. “Let us.”
2. “Our Image”
3. “Our likeness.”
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
1 The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
God the Father said to God the Son, sit at my right hand.
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
All of these texts from Scripture gives us evidence of the Trinity, which is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
*Do you have any questions?
Question #2 List three statements given in the chapter that summarize the biblical teaching on the Trinity and give scriptural support for each one.
God is three distinct persons.
Each person is fully God.
There is one God.
A. Let’s take a look at the first statement that God is three distinct persons. This means that the Father is not the Son; they are distinct persons. It also means that the Father is not the Holy Spirit, but they are distinct. It also means that the Son is not the Holy Spirit.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
The fact that the Word who is Jesus the Son is with God shows distinction from God the Father.
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
-There is a distinction of persons.
-There is a sharing of glory.
-And there is a relationship of love between the Father and the Son even before this world was ever created.
B. The next statement that we need to look at is the statement that each person is fully God. What does this mean? First of all, God the Father is clearly God, and we see this in the first verse of Scripture.
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Second of all, the Son is fully God.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Jesus was fully God and yet fully man as well. Here in John chapter 1 we see that Jesus is referred to as the Word. John says that he speaking of Jesus was with God and that He (Jesus) was God.
28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Third of all, the Holy Spirit is also fully God. Once we come to understand that God the Father and God the Son to be fully God, then the trinitarian expressions in verses like Matthew 28 assume the doctrine of the Holy Spirit because they show that the Holy Spirit is classified on an equal level with the Father and the Son.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
*Before we get to part three of the statements that there is one God, have someone read the short paragraph before this statement. (page 124)
C. The final statement that we see is that there is one God.
Scripture is clear that there is one and only one God. The three different persons of the Trinity are one not only in purpose and in agreement on what they think, but they are one in essence, one in their essential nature. In other words, God in only one being. There are not three God’s. There is only one God.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
*Do you have any questions before we move on?
*Have someone read point #4 on page 125. All analogies have shortcomings.
*God’s Word requires that we believe all of these statements to be true about God. Men we must know that God is three distinct persons. We must know and believe that each person is fully God. We must also believe that there is only one God. If not than this is where serious errors begin to creep in.
Question #3 Which of the above three statements does each of the following heresies deny?
1. Modalism = At various times people have taught that God is not really three distinct persons, but only one person who appears to people in different modes at different times.
-In the Old Testament God appeared as the Father.
-In the New Testament this same divine person appeared as the Son.
-After Pentecost, this same person then revealed himself as the Spirit active in the church.
30 I and the Father are one.”
The fatal shortcoming of modalism is the fact that it must deny the personal relationships with the Trinity that appear in so many places in Scripture. It must deny three separate persons at the baptism of Jesus. It must say that all the instances where Jesus is praying to the Father are an illusion.
This false statement or belief denies that God is three distinct persons!
2. Arianism = The term Arianism comes from Arius who was a bishop of Alexandria. His views were actually condemned at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. Arius taught that God the Son was at one point created by God the Father, and that before that time the Son did not exist, nor did the Holy Spirit. Only God the Father existed. Arianism holds or believes that though the Son is a heavenly being who existed before the rest of creation and who is greater than all the rest of creation, he is still not equal to the Father in all his attributes. The Son is similar to the Father in his nature, but cannot be said to be of the same nature as the Father.
John 3:16= Jesus was God’s only begotten Son. Therefore Arians would say that at some point the Son was created or brought into existence by the Father. They would say that the Son is not Divine.
*This false statement or belief denies that God the Son is God, or that each person is fully God.
3. Subordinationism = This view held that the Son was eternal (not created) and divine, but still not equal to the Father in being or attributes. The Son was inferior or subordinate in being to God the Father.
*This false view or statement denies that God the Son is God.
4. Tritheism = This view denies that there is only one God. Few persons have held this view in the history of the church. It has similarities too many ancient pagan religions that held to a multiplicity of gods. In other words, there would be no absolute worship or loyalty or devotion to one true God. This would destroy any sense of unity.
*Do you have any questions?
*Have someone read the short paragraph about the importance of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. (page 130)
-The atonement is at stake.
-Justification by faith alone is threatened.
-If Jesus is not infinite God, should we pray to Him or worship Him?
-If someone teaches that Christ is a created being but nonetheless saved us, than it credits the creature and not God himself.
-The independence and personal nature of God are at stake.
-The unity of the universe is at stake. In fact, the heart of Christian faith is at stake.
Question #4 What are the distinctions between the persons of the Trinity? How do these distinctions apply to the work of creation? Of redemption?
1. The persons of the Trinity have different primary functions in relating to the world. This is the economy or the ordering of activities. We see this in the different functions in the work of creation. God the Father spoke the creative words to bring the universe into being. But it was God the Son who carried out these creative decrees. The Holy Spirit was active as well in a different way, in moving or hovering over the face of the waters, apparently sustaining and manifesting God’s immediate presence in his creation.
In the work of redemption, we see that God the Father planned redemption and sent his Son into the world. The Son obeyed the Father and accomplished redemption for us. God the Father did not come and die for our sins, nor did God the Holy Spirit. This was a very particular work of God the Son. Then after Jesus went back to heaven, the Holy Spirit sent by the Father and the Son to apply redemption to us.
(Any Questions?)
(There is much that we did not have time to cover tonight so I want to encourage you to read the rest of this chapter and I hope that you will find it helpful.)
(Close in Prayer)