Tri-Loving God

Sermon Context

Lesson from Matthew 28.

Jesus has risen from the dead.

The Risen Lord directs his 11 disciples (12, minus Judas who betrayed him) to meet him on a mountain top in the area of Galilee, there they will see him.

They go to the location and the following events unfold.

Text

Matthew 28:16–20 ESV

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Introduction

One of the most widespread hopes about God among all people is that God is loving. People everywhere want to believe that if God has one outstanding characteristic it would be love — that even if no one else love you, God does.

We would like to believe God is loving…but how can we KNOW that God is loving.

For us Christians: we point to the triune God. F, S, HS.

Not the first thing we say…but perhaps it should be. Central to Jesus’ view and commission to us.

Exegesis

Jesus commands his disciples to meet him at a mountain top in the region of Galilee. Fitting location. This mountain, Mt. Tabor, was where his ministry began. it is where it will conclude.

It is where he was transfigured before his crucifixion. Recall, he took Peter, James, and John there and revealed his divine nature in great light, the cloud of the Holy Spirit descended, and the voice from Heaven, the Father, said, “This is my Beloved Son, listen to him.”

Now, as Jesus, concludes his earthly ministry — or better, as he hands it on to his disciples to continue — he bestows on them the Name of the very Trinity some of them have already witnessed.

Jesus gives them what has become known as the Great Commission, to preach, to teach, and to baptize all people into the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Trinity at the center.

The Christian church took a few hundred years to finalize the doctrine of the Trinity — One God in Three Persons — symbolized by the “ some who doubted” — but the formula of the Trinity, goes all the way back to Jesus himself.

As the Risen Lord he has all authority to state who God really is.

Jesus commissions his disciples to bring people into relationship with God in the NAME of the F, S, HS.

Not in the Names of the F, S, HS. But in the NAME, singular. Of the F, S, HS, Plural.

One God, three Persons.

Jesus clarifies who God has always been.

Has been known simply as God.

Has been known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Has been known as the God of Moses.

Has been known as the God of David.

NOW to be fully known as the God who is F, S, HS.

In this Trinitarian Name, Jesus affirms that the ONE GOD known from the beginning at creation, is the same God who has redeemed in Jesus Christ, and renews creation through the Holy Spirit.

Opens their minds to see that the Trinity always present in the Bible.

In the Beginning the Triune God created the world.

Then the Father said, let us make humankind in our own image (In the Trinitarian image).

In the Image of the Son, were Adam and Eve made, the first children of God.

And the Spirit filled them and they became living beings capable of loving one another and loving God.

Looking upon humankind the Father said, Very Good. In other words, with love, “you are my beloved, in you I am well pleased.”

Proclaim the Name of God — F…and S and HS.

And the story continues.

Alas! A Very Good creation did not last. Adam and Eve sinned against God, breaking fellowship with God and with each other. It seemed a hopeless plight. But…

God the Father so loved the world, sent his only Son to die a sacrificial death for humanity’s sins.

Son did not operate independently.

When Jesus began his ministry the Holy Spirit came and rested upon him like a dove.

In the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus preached, worked miracles.

On the cross, Jesus said, O Father, into your hands do I commend my spirit. And his sacrifice was accepted by the Father as sufficient for all sinners.

Jesus says: Proclaim the Name of God — the Son, and the F, HS.

Yet the Triune God was still not yet finished.

The sacrifice of the Son had in some way to be communicated to the world.

So when Jesus rose from the dead, he told his apostles to await the coming of the Holy Spirit, which the Father would send.

So, the Spirit came on Pentecost, in wind and flame, and filled the disciples, so they could evangelize the world.

Prompting the apostle John to later write: Behold the love of the Father that we should be called the children of God, and that is what we are because the Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts.

Because of the presence of the HS, Jesus could promise his disciples, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

Jesus says: Proclaim the Name of God — The HS,…and the F, S.

Jesus commissions his disciples to baptize in the Name Triune God. Not because God as F, S, HS, is something new, but because God has always been F, S, HS.

From the beginning of creation, through the redemption from sin, to the renewal of creation the one God, F, S, HS, has been loving humanity with an everlasting, transformative love.

Interpretation

I said earlier that people long to know that God is loving. But how can we know that it is so?

As Christians we know that God is indeed loving because of the whole story of the Bible. Story of the Trinity.

Proclaiming God as F, S, HS, is a kind of short hand. From start to finish, God is relating to us in loving actions.

Speaking of start-to-finish:

Example: Think of a three-legged race where participants are tied together, and to win, they must work as one. The Trinity exemplifies this teamwork in perfection. Each person of the Trinity plays a role, yet they operate in complete harmony, demonstrating not just unity, but also a profound, united love that enables us to experience God.

God the Father loved us at the beginning in creation.

God the Son loves us in the midst of all our brokenness.

God the Spirit loves us with renewed life to get us to the finish line.

F, S, HS, are all and each the One God and so it is all God’s LOVE.

This is the message that Jesus gave to his original apostles to share with the world and which has been passed down from the original apostles to us today.

We share this message in many ways today.

One way is that we still baptize in the Name of the F, S, HS. Will be doing that later this morning.

Still proclaim, preach, and teach in the name of the F, S, HS. Apostle’s Creed built on that formula.

Sing the Trinity — Holy, Holy, Holy, God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity.

Sign the Trinity — Sign self, anointing of oil.

As a church proclaim the Trinity in words.

Deeper level: to role model after the Trinity.

The love of the F, S, HS, binds them together in action toward us and the Triune God calls us to unite in love and action as well.

Application

We love with the love of God the Father.

Each person here a Son or Daughter of God.

Created in the image of God.

Psalm 8 - When I consider the works of your hands…what is a human being…yet you have crowned them with glory and honor.

A marker of the Trinitarian Church: respect…REVERENCE one another!

And toward outsiders, often devalued. I love you because you are a creation of God, inalienable value.

We love with the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It seems we are always surprised to encounter sinners in the church. It makes us want to leave. ( what if it were a church of perfect people—I would not fit in. So let’s get busy forgiving) But we are called to grow together. And the only way to stay together is to forgive.

Jesus said, you must forgive one another as I have forgiven you.

When we forgive, we show each other the love of God.

Toward the world around us. People are hurting. We should be kind. Everyone is fighting their own battle. For us, Be kind = share the grace of Christ.

We love with the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

We are all different. But we are connected.

We have various gifts, but one mission.

Each person of trinity is essential, member of our church community is needed.

Welcome - there is a place for you here, among us, with us.

Church of love, grace, and fellowship. United and diverse. That is sharing the tri-loving God!

Conclusion

We want to know that God is love.

The Trinity is proof of the love of God.

God created us in love. He redeems us in love. He gives us new life in love!

Tri-loving God and one another in that pattern.