Being
Notes
Transcript
Hook: Who in here likes Math? I liked math for a long time. Then I got to Pre-Calc. It seemed like math didn’t even have numbers anymore. I had originally planned to take Calculus because that was the track I was on. When I realized I was called to Student Ministry and my Bachelor’s would be in Education I realized, I don’t need to know this. I coasted through the rest of Pre-Calculus and felt a relief in knowing that I wasn’t going down that path any further.
Intro: It is no longer Rocktober, now we are in November, starting a new series, called God Level Math. We are going to be digging into the Trinity. We believe in one God, who is Three in One. As it is put in the Athanasian Creed: “The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God — yet not three Gods, but one God.”
So… 1 +1+1=1?
It’s not easy to understand.
Someone once put it this way: “Try to explain it, and you’ll lose your mind; But try to deny it, and you’ll lose your soul.”
By the time we are done with this series, we may have all lost our minds.
To start, let’s watch this video from Sean McDowell.
(VIDEO)
That’s what we are going to be diving into this month. The Trinity, the character of God, His being, The Persons, and what it means for us as the Church
Understanding, but not Comprehending
There is a distinction between understanding and comprehending (ex. Eternity)
St Augustine, “If you comprehend it, it is not God” (paraphrase)
“To even reach toward God with your mind, even a little, is an incredible blessing —
but to comprehend Him completely is impossible.
God is meant to be known by the mind,
just as a body is seen by the eyes.
But think about it — do your eyes really comprehend what they see?
Not at all. When you look at someone’s face, you can’t see their back at the same time.
When you look at their back, you no longer see their face.
So you see part of the person, not the whole.
You might move around an object or turn it over to see every side,
but even then you’re seeing only one part at a time.
You “piece together” what you’ve seen using memory,
but that’s not truly seeing the whole at once — it’s remembering.”
There is a limit to what we are going to understand about God and who He is . We can understand the Trinity but it is foolish to assume we can really comprehend it. That doesn’t make Him illogical or contradictory—He is simply incomprehensible.
Perhaps the simplest way to explain this is that God is One What—God, and Three Who’s—The Father, The Son, and The Spirit.
Next Week we are looking at the individual Persons of the Trinity, but today we will focus on the similarities of their Being.
2. HANDS
Each person of the Trinity shares five characteristics that is individually true of all of them, because they are all God
Honor
All three persons of the Trinity share the same honor of God.
Meaning they are all worshipped as God.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
If any person of the trinity were less than the other, they would not be worthy of the same worship.
Attributes
Here’s a few
Eternal
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Omniscient
for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Holy
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
The HOLY Spirit
There are other attributes but these are just a few!
Names
There are plenty of spots where we can connect Jesus and the Father, such as when Jesus refers to Himself as “I AM”
God
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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? 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.”
The teaching here is that all three of them are God.
Deeds
The works that only God can do — creation, redemption, resurrection, and sanctification — are done by all three.
Creation
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Resurrection
God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Sanctification
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
JAnd by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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.
Seat
God’s Sovereignty
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
There are plenty more verses for each of these, but I wanted you to be able to see it for yourself. That the God we worship is not divided into three. That all three persons have a common “what” in being of God.
This is all shared equally among them. Next week we will look at what is unique between the three persons.
Dismiss to groups.
