Everyone Is A Theologian: God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit

Everyone Is A Theologian: God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit John Weathersby Sunday November 11, 2018 Ah the trinity. My love for this doctrine runs deep. One of the things I keep coming back to is the knowability in balance with the un-knowability of the doctrine. Before we even get started I want to say how helpful the prophet Isaiah is, let me read one quick section: Isaiah 40:13–17 (ESV) 13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? 14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. 16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. First of all too that I’ll say amen and, trusting the infinite is the secret to understanding the trinity. Last week, we introduced the idea of the Trinity in our creatively titled study, “The Trinity’. We said that the Trinity consists of one what, 3 who’s. One what, the being of God, three who’s The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit. And so this week we look to better see those who’s. However, before we start I want to reiterate a point. That is this, we can know the Trinity. In fact, we’re supposed to, it would be difficult to number the passages that reveal elements of the being of God. This is what Scripture does, it reveals God to us. However were finite beings, we’re simply elements of creation, we think we’re very important (and God does hold us as highly important) but in the scheme of things we’re but dust. Often people will talk about our “free will”, that can be their hobbyhorse even, everything has to bow to human free will. Even how God reveals Himself, many people, perhaps even some in this room need to have a free will. Functionally what they mean is their freewill needs to trump God’s own will. Functionally perhaps even some in this room believe their personal will should be more important than God’s. Let me introduce to you a problem - if that were so, no one would come to God ever. Our will would be to exist without Him. In this life, He allows us to exist under a common grace (Genesis 8:22, Romans 2:4, Psalm 145:9, and famously Matthew 5:45) - we’re so rebellious and self exalting - but we’re intensely limited. Want to see what a free will looks like, look at: Genesis 8:22 (ESV) 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Romans 2:4 (ESV) 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Psalm 145:9 (ESV) 9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. Matthew 5:45 (ESV) 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Genesis 1:3 (ESV) 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. That is free will, the ability to impact time and space - you can choose to eat a salad or a hamburger, you can make decisions limited by the choices inside of God’s creation. You cannot even choose to float over the earth, you’re stuck to it, it pulls you down. You can get into a plane and fly but you fly strictly obeying God’s laws of nature. Yet we expect to fully “know” the Trinity. In 1992, Stephen Hawking said that there was a 50/50 chance that we’d find the exact physical laws that govern the universe within 20 years. That would have been 2012 - perhaps we could call Stephen and ask if they got it all figured out??? … Oh, there comes one major distinction between God and man, creature and creation - financy. We die. When Stephen Hawking died they sold off his stuff, someone paid nearly 400k for his wheelchair, another person 8,100 for a script from an episode of the Simpsons he appears in. His medals and awards, 392 k, 767k for a thesis he wrote in 1965 on the expanding universe (which predated his 20-year forward prediction for knowing the laws of the universe by 47 years. All told, we piled up his stuff and sold it off for 2.3 million dollars. We can know the Trinity, we can be highly aware of it, God in His grace gave us His word, the Bible so that we could know Him, and know truth about Him - so that we could test all things: 1 Thessalonians 5:21 including 1 John 4:1. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (ESV) 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 1 John 4:1 (ESV) 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. Church we are finite - we cannot even know the laws that govern the universe, much less how those laws play out, we cannot un-glue ourselves from the earth, we’re dependent upon God for even our next breath and to maintain the environment which allows us to live, HE is the creator we are the creature. When we can settle that distinction so much else, becomes so much easier. Here is a passage that is painted as a difficulty that I think is actually helpful - we’ll start here as we look to the 3 who’s of the one what, God. …all things have been given to me by the father…. Clear Conviction from Scripture: John 3:35 (ESV) 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. I like starting here. Why? It’s jam packed with theology and truth. And to fully appreciate it we have to look at verses 25-36 this will under pin our entire study of the persons of the Trinity and I encourage you to read and study the passage all week. In this passage, the disciples that follow John The Baptizer and a certain Jew have been debating about ritualistic washing for ceremony and the baptism John is preaching after repentance. Jewish eyes may have confused this Ordinance. Now, the disciples are reflecting back over the clash of ideas as they address John, Rabbi that guy you baptized is now baptizing others and many are following him now… was their point. John says to them, “a person cannot receive even one thing, less it is given to him from heaven” - church sink this in, maybe the disciples are asking, we’re working hard here, why are Jesus crowds bigger, what John is living and is passing to his disciples is a gift - contentment. Many of us don’t live in contentment, and the secret to it, John just gave. He said in a nut shell “God is sovereign, enjoy the ride”. Can you do that Church? Another way to state what John said is, what we’re receiving is from God”, would we deny that what God’s given us is good enough? Is the group of disciples and their mission not good enough, is God making a mistake by what He’s giving them? Perhaps the disciples would have felt better if they had a bigger crowd, maybe it would have served them better, they could have argued for truth better, it would have been easier to serve God if there were more people - perhaps they were fully discontent. Look at Jesus assessment of John’s ministry: Matthew 11:7–11 (ESV) 7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ 11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. None was greater born among women than this guy and his ministry that his disciples were maybe discontent with. We’re finite church - trusting the infinite is the secret. Again, as we come to oversee 28-29 we remember that Scripture is an accommodation from the infinite to the finite, from God to us, and like describing to a toddler what a gram cracker tastes like (as James White puts it), we are accommodated to through the wedding feast. John draws from what his disciples know of life when describing his role with Christ. He, John, is the forerunner to Jesus - he recognizes in his ministry that his entire God is exhausting Jesus (verse 30). He must increase but I must decrease - is that true of you? Do you look to be a part of a bigger ministry, perhaps then you don’t really have to serve God but the whole of the church serves to make you MORE comfortable, meets you where you are, John whom on earth no one was greater than he, wasn’t a shaken reed or living in the comfort of the kings house with soft clothing, no he was a worker for Christ - The the finite trusted the infinite. Do you? Or are you soft? D you run to a God who makes you comfortable and exists to serve you, to a Jesus who becomes smaller while your needs and comfort increases? But we’re looking at the Trinity, right? Our position before the Trinity is VASTLY important - as we understand the one what and three who’s we need to see where we fit. So far it’s subservient, it’s positionally under as creature - now lest look to God. Verse 31 builds a 3-part sandwich, 1 he who comes from above IS above, 2 he who is of earth belongs to earth and speaks that way 3 he who comes from heaven is above all. Ok…. So what does that mean, I’m glad you asked, 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard but no one receives his testimony. He’s showing of Jesus (who must increase) why he must increase he’s from above, John like his disciples and like us, is from earth; he must become less in light of He (Jesus) from above. Continuing in 33-34 people by our nature reject truth, reject God, and reject the holy spirit - it’s of our nature to doubt God like our first parents who were challenged by Satan to question God’s word, do not eat of the fruit of the tree, and so they did doubt God bringing sin into God’s creation. Doubt of God’s word and intention and the presence of sin impacted the relationship between man and our God - however, Jesus’ sacrifice for all the sins of the elect changed everything. And we too as we believe in Jesus’ testimony as we mark and memorialize in the believers obedient baptism, we show that we know God is truthful, as we come to know God through His word. John 3:34–35 (ESV) 34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. He whom God has sent (Jesus - unique person) utters the words of God the father) how, because He God the father, gives the Spirit (unique person). This passage doesn’t show one who (God) acting as 3 personalities - rather one what (God) in the 3 persons, God the father, God the son, God the spirit. Does This Matter: Does this matter? Is God concerned with our “getting it”? 1 John 2:23 (ESV) 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Do you confess the son Jesus as your savior? Jesus has what’s referred to as a hypostatic union, divine and man, Jesus, as the song says, stepped out of the light and down into darkness - he willingly look on flesh. Jesus was not created and was pre-existing, yet inserted into time to fulfill God holy requirement of the law because we could not - He Jesus is the focal point of the Gospel. He was prophesied about across all scripture: Isaiah 11:2 (ESV) 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 42:1 (ESV) The Lord’s Chosen Servant 1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. Isaiah 6:11 (ESV) 11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, Jesus was always God the father’s plan, the Spirit was always involved - the trinity is 3 who’s one what, the God -head, The father, the son, the spirit are co-eternal, and fully God. We are always finite and he is always infinite, we subject what we know to what he has revealed. The one being that is God is shared by 3 unique coeternal persons. Sounds strange right, doesn’t fit our understanding of being does it: I’ll point you to a few verses that help with that, and to the concept of Holiness. God is Holy which is to say, different: Isaiah 40:13–17 (ESV) 13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? 14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. 16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. Want to understand the trinity: trusting the infinite is the secret. To understand the origins of the universe and God will we look to ourselves and our heroes like Hawkins and his live works worth 2.3 million and failure to find the laws of physics or to God, creator and holy one who’s written to us in His word? I pray we’ll trust the infinite not the finite. Whetting of the Appetite for More Want to see more examples of the trinity’s persons in Scripture - not much is more explicit and clear than: Matthew 3:16-17 (ESV) 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him,[a] 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,[b] with whom I am well pleased.” Consider these passages together and ask, what does this say about Jesus? Isaiah 43:10 (ESV) 10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,     “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me     and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed,     nor shall there be any after me. John 13:19 (ESV) 19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Trusting The Infinite is the Secret!