The Trinity

Introduction

Illustration: The three candles.

Sometimes the idea of the trinity can seem kind of hard to swallow. An idea too big for us to wrap our heads around. Or maybe you’ve heard someone say that the trinity isn’t really found in the Bible anyway, that it was invented by the church a few hundred years later. Yet every Christian church insists that giving up on the trinity means you can’t rightly call yourself a Christian anymore. Why is that?

Well first of all, I do think we sometimes overcomplicate things. I think that any time we try to explain things more specifically than the Bible does we can get ourselves in trouble. So if the Bible describes something in a way that’s mysterious, maybe instead of trying to solve the mystery we should try to be okay with the mystery. To accept it. So if the Bible says that there is only one God, but it also says that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all God but are not the same person… well maybe we just need to accept that for what it is and not have to come up with a complicated philosphical explanation for it.

Second of all, the Bible gives us the trinity whether we like it or not. So here’s what’s at stake: We either believe that God is a trinity, or we lose the inspiration of scripture as a doctrine, and with the doctrine of inspiration goes everything else,since if we can’t trust scripture what can we even know about God at all? So you can see this is no small matter.

We have been making our way through the Gospel According to John for a while now, and throughout the gospel there are lots of occasions where Jesus says and does things that make it clear that He believes that He is God, and yet that He is not the Father. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve brought that up. Here in our passage today we get not the first mention of the Holy Spirit, but the first explanation of who the Holy Spirit is and what His role in the trinity is. Let’s take a look at John 14:8-31

John 14:8–31 CSB

“Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves. “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. “If you love me, you will keep my commands. 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. “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it you’re going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me. “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 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. “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful. You have heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen you may believe. I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me. On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me. “Get up; let’s leave this place.

I think that this passage does a great job not only of showing that the Trinity is a biblical idea, but also showing us some of the practical importance of the idea of the trinity. For instance, we see in the relationship of the Father and the Son the unity that is essential to understanding who God is so that we can truly know and follow Him. We also see that the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit to live within us, giving us the chance to join this loving relationship of the godhead. Finally we see in this passage an important reminder of the role of obedient love in the life of a Christian, lived out in the power of the Holy Spirit given to us.

The Father and Son

Illustration: Now, maybe this scenario is a bit unique to me, but have you ever forgotten someone’s name, but then a bunch of time passes and you don’t want to offend them by asking, but then it gets to the point where it’s been so long that you really can’t ask. Is that just me?

The issue is that you don’t want someone to feel like you don’t really know them. Especially if you let this go on for a real time. The idea that someone you’ve gotten to know doesn’t even know your name isn’t a fun one. Now imagine that you let this go on for three years. That would be pretty tragic, wouldn’t it? Jesus had a similar experience with His disciples.

Not that they forgot His name of course, although they do always refer to Him as “Lord” and “Rabbi” so, you know, there’s a small chance. No, instead it’s more like He’s been showing and telling them who He is and they’re just not getting it. That’s the feeling I get from the beginning of this passage this morning. To recap last time we looked at a passage that ended with Jesus saying that to see Him was to see the Father. Let’s take the conversation from there.

John 14:8–14 CSB

“Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves. “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

Can you almost hear the disappointment in Jesus voice when He says “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me?” And what Philip must have felt to hear these words from His beloved Rabbi. Yet Jesus feels that if Philip doesn’t know that seeing Him is seeing the Father than He doesn’t know Jesus at all. This is how intimate His relationship is with the Father.

You see as Christians we believe that Jesus is God, yet we don’t believe that there are two or even three Gods. We believe in one God. This can be a bit confusing if you try to fully understand it, yet it’s what the Bible says. Here Jesus is expressing the profound truth that while He and the Father are different persons, they are so “one” in essence that to see one is to be looking at the other.

Often times when people who aren’t Christians are wrestling with the idea of Jesus being both God and man they struggle with the idea that Jesus can be equal with God and yet He says stuff like “I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does His works.” But this is an inequality of role, not of worth. Jesus is just as much God as the Father, but He has from before the beginning of time submitted to the Father’s will. So that He can say in verse 31a

John 14:31 CSB

On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.

The difficulty in talking about their relationship is that there is no clear illustration in our lives to really express how one they are. You cannot truly seperate them, yet they are distinct also. This is pretty much impossible to fully understand, yet I think Donald Miller said it best when he said

"I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me," - Donald Miller

But what’s the point of all this? Is this just some fancy theological idea that Pastors use to sound smart? Far from it. The idea of the unity of the Father and Son is actually very practical for our Christianity, for the same reason that Jesus responded so harshly to Philip’s words. We need to understand Jesus’ unity with the Father to truly understand Him. To put it in frank terms, if you don’t believe that Jesus is God, than you don’t know Jesus. Full stop. So then my brothers and sisters, you understand why I keep making this point in so many of my sermons. I want us all to know Jesus and live for Him. The First step in that is to actually know who He is. So I urge you all not to lose sight of the importance of this most foundational belief.

Yet you may feel like I’m missing something here. We aren’t “duonitarians” who believe in two Gods in one, but we’re trinitarians. Until now in our series through John we’ve talked a lot about Jesus being God, but now the discussion turns to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit

Illustration: So most High schools have a position called a “guidance counselor.” Now personally I spoke to my guidance counselor exactly one time, after mandatory career aptitude test we talked to a guidance counselor about how to pursue our dream careers. I have absolutly zero memory about what we talked about or what advice that I was given.

I’ve been thinking about that title though, “guidance counselor” and what it would be like if everyone had a personal guidance counselor all the time. Now granted I probably could have made more and better use of the guidance counselor’s services at my school, but some of us got out of High School feeling like we still needed a lot of guidance. I mean, who doesn’t sometimes think to themselves “I need an adult” and then realize that they are that adult. Just me?

Fun fact, as disciples of Jesus, we actually do get the help of a personal guidance counselor, although He’s just one person He’s also God and therefore personally available to all of us. This guidance counselor is none other than the Holy Spirit Himself, promised to us by Jesus in this passage this morning.

John 14:15–20 CSB

“If you love me, you will keep my commands. 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. “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.

Then further in the passage Jesus says,

John 14:25–27 CSB

“I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 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. “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.

Have you ever thought to yourself that you wish Jesus had stuck around long enough for you to meet Him in person? Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t stay after the resurrection? Well as amazing as the incarnation is, it was done for a specific purpose. For Jesus to teach us and then die for our sins and raise from the dead. But the thing about a physical body is that it restrains you to one place. So then Jesus’ embodied presence on the earth limited Him to one geographical location. This is not so with the Holy Spirit.

This is why Jesus can say at once that He is leaving them and that He is coming to them. That’s because just like the Father and Son the Holy Spirit is part of the godhead, or in other words is one with the Father and Son though a distinct person. That means that where the Holy Spirit is, the Father and Son are also. So if Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, than we can all have Jesus and the Father dwelling inside us as He says in verse 20.

When I was a younger Christian and thought I was very smart, I used to roll my eyes at people that talked about Jesus living in our hearts and smugly correct them saying that it’s the Holy Spirit that dwells in us, not Jesus. Yet with age comes wisdom, and I eventually realized that both are true. When you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, you have the Son with you also.

And that’s how we can live up to the life that Jesus has called us to. The truth of the matter is that without God’s help, we can’t do what God has called us to do. Jesus was sent for a reason, mankind has failed time and again to live up to the standards that God has set for us. But wiping the slate clean isn’t enough if we just return to sin. We need power to live differently. So He sends the Holy Spirit as our Holy guidance counselor.

The Greek word translated “Counselor” can also mean “Helper,” “Comforter,” or “Advocate.” It comes from paraklētos, which means “one who is called alongside.” In other words, the Holy Spirit is the one called to be beside us—our divine companion, guide, and strength. We aren’t left alone as Christians. To be baptized in the Holy Spirit is to have God Himself make His home in us, so that Paul can refer to us as the new Temple where God’s spirit dwells. In the Old Testament, God’s presence was located in the temple. Now, by the Spirit, that presence lives in us. We are living, breathing temples of the God who created the universe.

This is kind of a huge deal. One that is frankly probably pretty underplayed in many Christian circles. Let’s just pause for a second and think about that. If you believe in Christ and follow Him, God Himself comes and dwells inside you. *pause*. That’s everything. You see Jesus is the one who makes a way for us to be saved and to live forever by paying our debt on the cross, but the Holy Spirit is the one that enables us to live up to our new status as saints. That word, by the way, means ‘holy ones’—and in the Bible, it refers to all Christians, not just spiritual all-stars.

It’s only by this guidance of the Spirit of truth that we can not only know Jesus’ commands, but also live by them. Why? Because loving Jesus means keeping His commands.

Love by Obedience

Illustration: What do you do when someone you love asks you to do something? I mean, you probably need more context than that, right, because sometimes the people we love can ask for things we can’t or shouldn’t give, especially if those people we love are toddlers, but let’s assume you’re able to and you know it would be good for them and not harmful if you do what they ask. If you love them, you’ll do it for them right? Certainly doing what they ask of you is the more loving action than not.

Let’s assume the person in question is God Himself. This is basically what Jesus asking for obedience is. It’s someone you love asking you to do something for them. So then it becomes pretty clear what you do if you love Jesus and He asks you to do something for Him. You do it.

Jesus felt this was an important reminder for His disciples. He wanted them to know well that loving Him meant keeping His commandments. Why else would He repeat this statement three times in just this small passage of Scripture. Let’s read these three verses:

John 14:15 CSB

“If you love me, you will keep my commands.

John 14:21 CSB

The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

John 14:23–24 CSB

Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.

In that last one He even restates it as a negative to drive the point home further. If you love Him you’ll obey Him, and if you don’t obey Him than you don’t love Him. That’s not to somehow make our obedience necessary for salvation. Remember that we are saved by grace alone through faith, according to Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 CSB

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.

Yet Paul doesn’t stop there, he also says in verse 10

Ephesians 2:10 CSB

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

We were created for good works. We are saved by grace, but created for good works, and these good works are the act of love that we show to Jesus. Love as I’ve said before is not just a feeling but an action we do. Like when we lift up worship to God, or when we give to someone in need, or when we treat someone with undeserved kindness. Remember that Jesus said even the smallest act of love we do for another is an act of love to Him, Matthew 10:42

Matthew 10:42 CSB

And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”

This is a simple enough idea, and yet we find it difficult in practice, don’t we? Even when Jesus simplifies the law of God into just love for God and others we still struggle to keep His commands, don’t we? Well that’s why He has sent us the Holy Spirit as we’ve said before, because without His help we cannot do it. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can love Jesus as we ought to, and only through those actions can we grow even more in love and obey Him more in a sort of Holy feedback loop.

So then we should as disciples of Jesus pray for the Holy Spirit’s help in loving Jesus through our actions. It’s not enough to be baptized and faithfully attend church—those are important, but they aren’t the sum total of our calling. We need to do what Jesus said, and the primary thing He said was to love one another. So let us encourage one another to good works as an act of love for our loving savior.

Conclusion

So what is the unifying theme of this passage? It’s love. The Holy Trinity exists in an eternal loving relationship, where the Father and Son are so united that to see one is to have in essence seen the other. Then the Holy Spirit sent by the Father and Son is the presence of God with us, and because of His relationship with the Father and Son we have all three dwelling at once in us. Finally we are called to join God in a loving relationship, and the way that we express our love for Him is out of our obedience to His commands. And all those commands can be summed up in Love God, Love your neighbor.

So once again I am calling us all to be a people of love. I’ll repeat it every week if that’s what the Bible is saying, and I find it saying it over and over again. God wants us to experience His love and to return it. This means understanding who He is and living out His commands for us every day.

So this morning, I invite you—whether you’re new in the faith or a lifelong follower—to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you anew. To help you love Jesus more deeply and obey Him more fully. Let’s not just hear this passage. Let’s live it—by the Spirit, through love.

Let us pray.