Inheritance of Wisdom

Psalm 8 NRSV

To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David. O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

O Lord, you reveal wisdom and spiritual insight through your presence in creation. When we look at the heavens, we see your vastness. When we look at seas teeming with fish and verdant fields painted like a canvas, we see your creativity and your bounty. For all of this and so much more, we praise your name. Amen.

Lord of mysteries, we admit that sometimes we are confused by the concept of Trinity. We can speak the words of Three-in-One, but our minds are boggled and confused. You are so great and your work is so awesome, that we try to find ways to express your work and witness in our lives. From before the beginning of time, you offered love and creative wisdom as you created all that is. In the person and ministry of Jesus you taught us more clearly about your nature, love, and gave to us ways that we should live peacefully together. The Holy Spirit is offered as our guardian and guide, faithfully with us all our days. Full and complete is your love for us, your creation. Help us, again, to be more faithful to you. Give us opportunities to witness and serve. Heal and restore us. For we ask these things in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...

Proverbs 8:22–31 NRSV

The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth— when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.

Proverbs 8:

John 16:12–15 NRSV

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 16:

Today, we begin a new sermon series that will cover some of the basic beliefs in Christianity. Some may argue that doctrine and theology is not as important as the ways in which we engage the world around us. I believe that what we believe directly affects how we do mission in our local communities and how we treat one another. Without an understanding of doctrine, we lose the answers to the deep questions in the life of Church.

We begin with one of the most difficult of doctrines, the Holy Trinity. On the Sunday after Pentecost, we always celebrate Trinity Sunday. Why celebrate the Trinity specifically?

It actually goes back to the early Church in the fourth century AD. The Church was embroiled in a theological battle on the nature of Christ. On one side was a presbyter from Alexandria named Arius. Arius taught that Jesus was divine and of similar substance of God the Father; however, he was a created being – the first of all creations but a creation nonetheless. He was the agent of God’s creation as stated in John 1:1 as the Logos, the Word. On the other side was a bishop from Alexandria name Athanasius. For him, restoration and redemption of humanity would not be possible without Jesus being fully human and fully divine. Jesus was God’s way of being personally present in the world – he was fully God in human flesh.

This doctrine was the reason for the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. At the Council, the bishops through prayer and discernment through the Holy Spirit overwhelmingly went with Athanasius’ understanding of the nature of Christ. With this, the Nicaean Creed was formed which details the nature of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

After this controversy, the church developed liturgy and further understanding of the fullness of who God is. In western Christianity, the Church began to celebrate the Trinity on the Sunday following Pentecost. In the eastern Church, Trinity Sunday is what we call Pentecost Sunday in the west. The Sunday after Pentecost is All Saints Day in the east.

I give you this history lesson to help you to understand the importance of what we believe about the nature of God. It has prime importance to our understanding of God’s role in the world, in salvation, and our mission in the kingdom. What we believe about the nature of God has ripple effects throughout our identity as God’s people

Our passages this morning, focus on the relationship within the Trinity. This is one of the ways that we can understand more clearly what the nature of God really is. Our passage from uses the word ”declare” three times throughout. What does it mean to declare? In the context of the passage, it is actually better translated at “redeclare.” The Spirit redeclares what has always existed within the Trinity to us. Today we are going to look at the ways in which we inherit from God what has been declared so that we can not only discover more of God, but also more of ourselves in the process.

Proverbs 8:22–23 NRSV

The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

Colossians 2:2–3 NRSV

I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

How we experience who God is will tell us about the nature of God in our lives. In our passage from Romans, we learn the gospel of the triune God primarily through the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. The experience of the believers as God acted in their lives was experienced through Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The experience is through the gospel that is proclaimed.

The work that is done in the world through Father, Son, and Holy Spirit show us who God truly is. The Father has sent the Son into the world to die for the sins of humanity. The death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus makes way for the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, the same Spirit that filled the prophets of old, the same Spirit that through whose power Peter healed the lame man at the temple…that same Spirit is given to all of us. We are told in our passage that we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ through the work of the Spirit in our lives. So if we experience God in this way, it must be the nature of who God is.

It is something that does not make since in our minds. Theologians have tried to use various ways to elicit some kind of understanding of this doctrine. Jews and Muslims have accused the church of worshiping three gods. We believe in one God in three Persons. Jehovah’s Witnesses try to make Jesus the archangel Michael. Mormons claim that there is a heavenly Father who is the real, physical father of all of us, including Jesus. He is part of a Godhead of Father, Son, and Spirit, but not co-eternal with the Father. These understandings of who God is do not match experience.

If Jesus is just a created being then the work of salvation means nothing. If Jesus is just a divine presence salvation means nothing. In order for us to truly be saved from the shackles and damnation of sin, we must have a Savior who is both fully God and fully human for it to matter. In Jesus, we have experienced the fullness of who God is. Jesus tells his disciples, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” in John 14. The disciples did not understand it. But their experience told them that Jesus was God in the flesh and that the Spirit that had come to empower them on Pentecost was not just some force. He was sent to us by the Son to continue his work and ministry in the world so that we might become like him in his holiness and righteousness.

John 16:12–13 NRSV

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

John 7:16–18 NRSV

Then Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me. Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.

From the very beginning of creation, God has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is not blatantly present in the Old Testament; however, we do have these moments where there is hints of how God works in the world in a triune way.

In the passage, we see God showing himself in creation and working within creation to reveal who he is to all things. There are three actions that are important in terms of the triune God: creating, sweeping, speaking. These are the three activities that are present in this passage that also show us the working of God revealing himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In the Apostles’ Creed, we begin by saying, “I believe in God, the Father, maker of heaven and earth.” It seems that it is through the Father that creation out of nothing is first initiated. We next get a glimpse of the working of the Holy Spirit as a “wind” from God swept over the waters. The Hebrew word for “wind” is “ruah” which is also interpreted “Spirit.” Some translations use that phraseology. So we see that the Spirit is present in creation as well. Finally, God speaks and light is formed. This happens everytime something is created – God speaks it into existence. This is the Logos or the Word – “all things that were made were made through him.” We can see the working of the triune God in creating all things.

With the view of knowing the triune God through experience and through creation, we must be careful not to fall into the heresy of modelism, which is that one God reveals himself in three ways but it is the same God. The way it has been described to me is that God wears masks. At one point in history he is Father, at another he is Son, at another he is Spirit. This of course does not work because Jesus prayed to the Father and the Spirit descended on him at his baptism. But we have to be careful not to fall into that trap when speaking about God.

Therefore, one way of describing what it is happening in the creation of the universe is to consider that God created all things out of his abundant love. What holds and connects the Trinity together is the mutual indwelling of love that is expressed in each action that is taken. God created all things out of his love. The love of God overflowed into the universe. Through the love of God we are given life. Our call then is to praise him for that love that he has shown to us. If God creates all things out of the overflow of his love, that means that when we are adopted as God’s children that same love continues to overflow in our lives. So that, creation continues in us as we are made a new creation in Christ. As a new creation, we are so filled with God’s love that it overflows into those around, thereby creating new community – the church. God continues to show himself to us as we are recreated into the likeness of Christ on a daily basis. Creation never ends it is an ongoing process in our lives and around us.

John 16:14–15 NRSV

He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Romans 8:1–5 NRSV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Finally, we look at how the Trinity is an example of how we are sent by God into the world. Jesus tells his disciples for the last time when he is about to ascend into heaven that they are to go into all the world. In the same way that the Father sent Jesus into the world, he is also sending us. We are to baptize and to teach all people about the message of the gospel that finds its foundation in the Trinity.

In the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus was sent by the Father many times. Jesus tells those who are listening to him teach that he was sent by the Father to bring people to know who God is. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to that work now. We are called to live according to the Spirit. There is a new work taking place in our lives as we follow the message of Jesus. The only way that we can really be sent is when we have the Holy Spirit in our lives. The only way that we can really know what God is speaking to us is through the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus was empowered and sent by the Spirit so are we. The question that we have is how are we going to represent God in a world that needs to know him so desperately. How are we going to bring the message of the gospel to a world that is more concerned about self-preservation rather that loving others?

Jesus tells us that he will be with us until the end of the age – until that time when he would return. In the meantime, all that was his is now ours. When we look at the work of the Trinity and the mutual indwelling of love what we see is the example of how we are sent into the world to bring that same love. Go into all the world… This is a message for us in our day. The message of the gospel isn’t one that we declare everyone to come to us. We are to go where people are and share the gospel with them.

Here is a question that we all need to hear: Do you have an urgency to see others know the love of Jesus? For too long the church took for granted that people would just show up to church. If a new family moves into town, they would go to the Methodist church or Baptist church because that’s where they went in the town they moved from. That does not happen any more. We live in a society that is skeptical of organized religion. But do you know what is interesting? In a recent study, 79 percent of unchurched people said they would be willing to engage in a faith conversation if a Christian friend shared, yet in a separate but related research, only 39 percent of Christ-followers said they have shared the gospel in the past six months. Why is that? If the love of Jesus is overflowing in our lives, how can we not want to share Christ with people around us? We are called to go! We have been given the same Spirit in us that was in Christ when he was raised from the dead. Why do we not want to share this great news? We must live with boldness. We must not live ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must engage the community around us and not expect people to just show up but provide ministries that are engaging to them and share the love of Jesus. The Father sent Jesus into the world because he knew that was the only way the world could be saved. Jesus was empowered by the Spirit to preach, heal, and cast out demons. The Spirit was sent upon the church to continue this work and share the gospel.

The Trinity is a difficult doctrine for us to understand, but at the heart of our faith, the Trinity is the example that we have to experience the fullness of God. This is how God has revealed himself to us through creation. This is the example we have of how we are to engage the world around us. God does not keep his love to himself. We are called as Christ-followers to be out there. Go into all of Bailey, Wilson, Nash County, Wilson County….share the gospel with everyone, love like Jesus loved, care like Jesus cared, be filled with the Spirit. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Through grace and peace, may we have the wisdom to be transformed. For suffering leads to endurance, endurance gives rise to character, and character produces hope. In true hope, hope founded in God, we are never disappointed.

Inheritance of Wisdom

Opening Prayer

Pastoral Prayer

Introduction

God has declared his wisdom.

God has declared his truth.

God has declared his mission.

Benediction

Inheritance of Wisdom

Opening Prayer

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Pastoral Prayer

Introduction

God has declared his wisdom.

God has declared his truth.

God has declared his mission.

Benediction