The Mystery of The Trinity

We all know stars are beautiful and breathtaking,they make us feel small, they remind us that time moves forward without us, they are incredible. But, much of what we know about the stars doesn’t matter.

Did you know: stars are in perfect balance

There is a huge gravitational pull inward, but the energy moving outward (light) pushes it in from collapsing on itself.

Did you know: That you can only really see about 2,500 stars on the clearest of nights?

Did you know: that 1/4 Americans think that the sun orbits the earth

These are fun facts about something none of us will really know. But, they are somewhat useless, because we can’t apply them to our lives.

This morning

Many people see the trinity the same way:

it’s cool to talk about sometimes, but I don’t really know a lot about it

it seems like something you need to go to school to really talk about

It doesn’t really effect my life at all

But, we are going challenge that today: I am going to argue that the truth about the trinity is life-changing for all of us and we need to take it seriously.

So, what is the Trinity:

God is ONE and THREE at the SAME TIME

People squabble here and say that God is illogical and can’t be real.

Law of Non-Contradiction states “A cannot be A and non-A at the same time and in the same relationship.”

The Trinity is saying that God is one in A and three in B

3 Who’s and 1 What

Truth 1: God is THREE DISTINCT PERSONS

The “What”

God the Father

Authoritative

The “sender”

He is glorified by the Son

God the Son

Jesus Christ

Takes the role of the Servant

He was “sent” and went

He became man and lived a perfect life, going to a sacrificial death to be the payment for our sin— To the Father (Ref)

He became man and lived a perfect life, going to a sacrificial death to be the payment for our sin— To the Father

He was raised from the dead

God the Holy Spirit

Descends, moves, hears, speaks, opens eyes and ears, is grieved, fills, is quenched

He is a counselor and helper.

Descends, moves, hears, speaks, opens eyes and ears, is grieved, fills, is quenched

He is a counselor and helper.

He is sent

He goes

He knows you

These things area all accomplished separate from one another, as individuals

Truth 2: Each Person is FULLY GOD

God the Father is God

Pretty unchallenged in the history of the world

God the Son is God

Jesus just straight up said he was God- ,

“I am the Father are one”

Jesus was put to death for claiming to be God-

Before/During/After Creation- ,

Walking around on earth-

After He died-

God the Holy Spirit is God

He is the source of Spiritual life- ,

He is referred to as “God”-

He is eternal-

He is omnipresent-

These are things that could only be accomplished by a being who was fully God

Truth 3: There is ONE GOD

There is only one God

- Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

- I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

my glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to carved idols.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

- You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

Trinity= Tri-unity

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Rooted in Monotheism

We see this as this truth is slowly revealed to us throughout scripture

Each person is introduced and we see them work independently

While hindsight is 20-20 and as we look back, they were there all along.

----------How can this work?---------------

The Dance of God

Bad analogies

Water, Pretzel, egg,

Historical mistakes

3 Parts of 1 whole

3 Forms of 1 thing

Best analogy I have found is the Sun

Star burning- Father

Light emitting- Son

Heat that you feel- The Holy Spirit

Reality

Our own words and analogies fail us- lets try to see the three 3 truths in action

The Father and The Son

God the Father

Perfectly existing, awesome, all powerful, all knowing- including knowing about himself

“He is the image of the invisible God”- Col 1:15

God knows exactly who He is exactly what His make-up is, exactly what he looks like, He has the perfect knowledge

That perfect logic, thought, knowledge, Word— is Jesus

God the Father has always existed and always had a perfect understanding of Himself- that means that Jesus has always existed as a perfect image of God.

- In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

- who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped

- He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power...

“God’s idea of himself is absolutely perfect and therefore is an express and perfect image of him, exactly like him in every respect; there is nothing in the pattern but what is in the representation—substance, life, power nor anything else…But that which is the express, perfect image of God in and in every respect like him is God to all intents and purposes…” (Jonathan Edwards, An Essay on the Trinity, p. 101)

Meaning Jesus is the exact copy of God the Father, and is God

Dicey territory of analogies: **2014 movie starring Johnny Depp called Transcendence. He put his thoughts, personality, everything about his conscience into this computer. When the real Johnny Depp dies there is a person in this computer. Not the same, but not different. But the same and different. It was Johnny Depps exact image of his invisible self.**

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit

Existence of two parts: knowing and loving

Knowing begat Jesus (perfect knowledge reflected)

Loving begat the Spirit

The eternal love between the Father and His son as they glorify and delight in one another

Father-and-Son perfect love, glory, honor— so wonderful, such a fullness of themselves in the act that the Love itself is a person: their community is a person

C.S. Lewis- the spirit of a group: sports, family, really tight knit friends— they produce a spirit of a group, separate from each, but together is almost its own person

With God, it IS another person that comes from the Father-Son communion

The river of joy and light and goodness and love that has always existed between the Father and Son is the heat on our skin that we feel coming from the burning star in the sky, carried to us by the light

That is the Holy Spirit that we have within us

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

God abides in us. His love in us. His Spirit in us.

But not The Holy Spirit isn’t a tool that God the Father uses. He IS God.

When you say you know God, you mean you know His love. When you say you know His love, you mean that you know the Holy Spirit.

Real life

God is three distinct persons, Each person is fully God, there is one God

Jesus is the image of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the love that flows between the Father and Son and is extended to us.

But right now, some of us have water in our basements. You might have a sick friend. Depression and loneliness. You aren’t patient. Your marriage feels like it is in trouble. Your child just won’t behave.

There are struggles and pains that are right in front of you everyday and for some people this teaching seems like something that is really distant and sort of useless. Just fun facts.

It isn’t just random bits of information, or dusty theology or a fun fact about mars.

Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers to ever live, once said

“Get a clear idea, then, of the Trinity in Unity. Do not reason about it; do not try to understand it: remember, it is not your duty to comprehend, but to apprehend such truths as these: you are to believe rather than to reason...

Application

Friends, the Trinity, Who God is, is so not just fun facts. This doctrine is the key to unlocking so many promises and truths in the Bible

It all comes down to a very familiar word: Believe

Believe that the Triune God deserves more of your attention than the news or your social circles

Just as God said “let us make man” He has said “let us save man”

and when you say Savior you refer to the Father who sent, the Son who went, and the Spirit who helped your blind eyes see

Just as the Trinity is begotten through the Head and the Heart, it affects us that same way

We pursue the right knowledge of God

We pursue the right affections for God

Are we doing that? Are we actually and intentionally trying to know who God is, to Love him as we should?

Or are we ok with fun facts?

As Spurgeon pointed out: It all comes down to a very familiar word: Believe. Believe in the God of the Bible.

Believe that the Triune God deserves more of your attention than the news or your social circles

I think that our downfall will be that we are so completely fine with cheap entertainment that we never look upward to glory.

Our hearts never search the skies wrestling with some beautiful truth because our eyes and hands are too fixated on things and stuff and ourselves.

“We are far too easily pleased” - C.S. Lewis

The

Take-home

Don’t leave here with just some more interesting facts about God tucked into your brain.

Leave here with a Challenge to KNOW GOD more and LOVE GOD more.

Set down distractions, cheap entertainment

Give up fun-facts and fortune cookies about God

Bring your eyes, your mind, and your heart upward to consider who God is

The Trinity challenges us all to come to God with serious humility and say “I want to know you more God. I want to love you more.”

Use the key of the trinity to unlock so many more wonderful, beautiful, life-changing, joy-bringing truths

This morning, as you think about how you can become less distracted and more devoted- lets humbly go to God in communion.

Communion

**** CALL UP USHERS AND BAND *****

This morning, as you think about how you can become less distracted and more devoted- lets humbly go to God in communion.

If you are not a Christian and you don’t understand what we are doing here, thats ok

This is something that Jesus did the night before he died for our sins. So, we remember his death for us by doing this.

In fact, Paul wrote that “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

If you are a follower of Christ, take a moment to confess any sins that you may have between you and God and examine yourself as the plate comes around and we will all take it together.

"The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said “this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me”

In the same way also, he took the cup, after supper, saying “this cup is the new promise in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Pray Out

Thank you that you are too big to understand

Thank you for your Son

Thank you that we can commune with you

Pray for hearts to be changed by truth

Pray that you would work in our church to create people that are less distracted and more devoted to you

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