Sermon Tone Analysis

Opening Prayer

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.

Pastoral Prayer

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:

John 16:

Introduction

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?

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.

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.

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.

God has declared his wisdom.

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.

God has declared his truth.