The Trinity

If you have your Bibles flip over to Ephesians chapter 1 - while you’re flipping there I wanted to start with an illistration

So I have here a Jenga tower. And if you look at this jenga tower, it’s made up of several blocks. These blocks work together to create a structure. Now, there are some blocks in this tower….like this one….that I can take out, I can move it around, I can place it different ways, but no matter what my preference is, at the end of the day, our jenga tower is still the same jenga tower we had. If someone else was up here playing with me, they might have chosen to leave this block in its original spot, they might have lied it down differently, but still – we would have the same tower here right?

However, there are some blocks in this tower, foundational blocks, that if we take out…like this one….CRASH…. the tower, the identity of our structure ceases to exist. Some blocks we can’t move.

So why do I show you this? Well, if you’ve been tracking with us the last few weeks, we’ve been in a mini-series going over the core foundations of the faith. The way we’ve described it, Christianity is built up of different doctrines and beliefs, some doctrines are like our first Jenga block. Some doctrines, members inside the body of Christ can disagree on. Things like mode of baptism, frequency of communion, election, these doctrines while important, we wouldn’t consider them salvific in nature. We call these issues, open hand issues. However, there are some doctrines in Christianity that would be like the second block I pulled. Some doctrines in the Christian faith are foundational, and if we take them out, or get them wrong – we’re in danger of losing the identity of the structure. We call this close handed issues. If you get these wrong, you’re stepping outside the realm of Christianity.

And so we’ve talked about a few of these already – two weeks ago Trae kicked us off by talking about the authority and sufficiency of Scripture – that we believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and how God has revealed himself to his church. Therefore it’s sufficient for the believer and authoritative. And then last week he talked about Jesus, that Jesus is the fully God – fully man, and the only way to right relation with God. There is no other way than Jesus. There is no salvation apart from Jesus, he is THE way THE truth and THE life.

And so this week, we’re continuing this min-series. And the topic that I want to discuss with us today is the doctrine of the Trinity.

And so what I want to do with our time this morning is do two things. First I want to talk about What the Trinity is? Where does this idea come from, and why do we believe it? And then second I want to explain why it matters, what importance does the Trinity have on our lives.

So I’ll read our Scripture for this morning and then we’ll dive in

Ephesians 1:3-14

Ephesians 1:3–14 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

~Pray~

So what is the Trinity?

So let’s dive in, what is the Trinity? Well a basic definition of Trinitarian doctrine would be

We believe that God eternally exists as one God in three distinct persons: Father, Son and Spirit

So we’re gonna unpack this definition in a second, but I want acknowledge the fact that the term Trinity never appears in your Bible. And so you might say - well if its not in our Bible than why do we beleive it? Well thats what I’m gonna try to show you this morning.

But this term that spring up in the early history of the church as they battle heretics inside the church. Really the doctrine of the Trinity actually arises as an answer to one question. And in fact, this might be the most important question any person has asked, can ask, and will ask. And that question is “who is God?”. And this is the question our early church fathers were asking when they started to develop this doctrine of the Trinity. And I think its the most important question we can ask today. And I want us to see today that one of the best answers to the question of “who is God?” is Trinity

We believe that God eternally exists as one God

So lets unpack this definition a little bit - “^” this idea of God’s oneness or unity emerges out of the Old Testament and our Jewish background. So Christianity is a branch from Judaism, and if you know anyting about Judaism, they only beleive in one God - Yaweh. This is the God that was revealed to the fathers of the faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and eventually to the people of Israel in the Old Testament.

and the most defining characteristic of the people of Israel was that they were monotheistic (mono - one, theo -God). They only worshiped one God. We see this in the famous Shema in Deuteronomny 6.

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

And this idea is a pillar of the Isrealite religion, because all of the other nations in the Old Testament had hundreds if not thousands of gods. In fact, each of the 10 plagues that God inflicted Egypt with before he lead Israel out of slavery corresponded to a particular god that they had in their culture. For example the plague of darkness demonstrated YHWH’s power over the Egyptian sun god Ra.

and there are several examples of this type of event in the Old Testament - the one God YHWH besting the pantheon of gods of the other nations. So the people of YHWH in the Old Testament were charactereized by their service to only one God, the true living God.

And even in the New Testament the authors make it clear that we worship one God- Paul when discussing idols in first Corinthians states that “there is no God but one”

1 Cor 8:4

1 Corinthians 8:4 ESV

Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”

And so we see the authors of the Bible clearly pointing us to one God.

Howeverrrrr, even in the the Old Testament, there are a few weird things going on. For example

Gen 1:1-2

Genesis 1:1–2 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

At creation - We see God - but we also see the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters

and a little bit later in the creation story when God creates humanity

Gen 1:26

Genesis 1:26 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Hear that language? Let “us” make man in “our” image - so God is talking in the plural

So there are some foreshadows of the things to come - but for hundreds of years the people of Israel worshiped one God in one person - YHWH

We believe that God eternally exists as one God

But the Jesus steps on the scene. and this is where the other part of our defition comes in

We believe that God eternally exists as one God in three distinct persons: Father, Son and Spirit

We believe in one God - YHWH, but when Jesus enters the building it causes the whole world to rethink their understanding of God.

Why?

Well Jesus at first seems pretty normal right (ok ignoring all the angels and virgin birth) but after that he seems like a normal kid, grows up to be a normal carpenter from Nazereth. BUT then he starts doing things. He starts teaching and preaching messages about the coming Kingdom of God promised in the Old Testament. and he goes around healing people of diseases and deformities. and then when he gets confronted by the religious leaders - he starts forgiving people of sins (which only God can do), He claims to be the Lord over the Sabbath (which is only YHWH), and he even goes around saying that God is his own father like in the passage we read earlier - making himself equal to God.

John 5:18

John 5:18 ESV

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

and so to put a stop to this blasphemer - the Jewish religious leaders had this Jesus of Nazereth killed. But one little thing happend. After 3 days, he rose from the dead like he had predicted he would several times while he was alive, and appeared to his apostles and over 500 witnesses. And if someone predicts their own death and reseruction, and then does it - it might cause me to think a little more deeply about some of the words they had said.

And thats exaclty what the apostles did. They begin to think on the things that Jesus said and did, and in their writings to the early church its easy to see that they concluded that he was God. The author of Hebrews write that Christ is

Heb 1:3

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)

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.

and Paul writes in Colossians that

Colossians 1:15–19 (ESV)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him…in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

So the aposltes we to their graves preaching this message the Jesus Christ was fully God - “the fullness of God” was in him - he wasnt half God, or a lessor version of God - but the fullnes of God mixed with the fullness of man.

and as they were studying the they began to see another character that started to confuse them- the Holy Spirit

John 14:25-26

John 14:25–26 ESV

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 16: 7-14

John 16:7–14 (ESV)

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

“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 authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

and as we examine the words of Jesus we that he speaks of the Holy Spirit as a seperate person, with different roles than the Son.

and in Acts - Peter compares lying to the Holy Spirit as lying to God

Acts 5:3-4

Acts 5:3–4 ESV

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

So as we talk about these verses, you probably start to resonate with the confusion of the early church. God is one, we know that- but we have Christ who is fully divine - and He is the Father, but He also is different from the Father, and we have the Spirit of God who is different then the Son and different from the Father but also is equated with God.

And as the early church wrestled with this, the started to come up with a framework to help understand how God has revealed himself in the Bible. And thats sort of a biblical overview of why we believe in the doctrine of the Trinity - because thats what the scriptures point to

And there’s a lot more I could go into - there’s a lot of church history about how this doctrine really got hammered out - and there’s a lot more technical languague we can use to describe the Trinity and the persons of the Trinity - He’s God so natually it can get pretty complicated.

There’s four basic things I want us to leave with

1)There is one and only one true and living God.

2)This one God eternally exists in three persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

3) These three persons are completely equal in attributes, each with the same divine nature.

4) While each person is fully and completely God, the persons are not identical. The differences among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are found in the way they relate to one another and the role each plays in accomplishing their unified purpose.

If you want a great resource I would recommend the Gospel Coalition - they have a whole course on there about the Trinity, and it has a lot of great informatoin, videos, and book recommendations.

What I want to spend the rest of our time talking about is

Why is the Trinity important?

So why is the Trinity important? Why does all this matter? Well, I’ve got 3 reasons why the doctrine of the Trinity is a central foundation of the faith

# 1 - The Trinity explains the identity of God

Flip over to Matthew 28

Matt 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

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.”

As I get older, I feel like I start acting more and more like my parents. Does any one else feel like that? And if you ask my students I’m basically a dad. I love making dad jokes. So sometimes I’ll ask my students “how are you today?” and they’ll often say “I’m tired”. And even though ever fiber in my body is screaming “dont say it, dont say it, dont say it” but my dad reflexes kick in and I utter back “Hi tired, I’m Ben. ” And whats happening in that moment is although “I am tired” could be interpreted “my name is tired” right, like if I asked “Who are you?” and you replied “I’m Steve” what you’re saying is that “my name is Steve. However, when my student tells me that they’re tired, in that given context I am missing a deeper meaning.

And I wonder sometimes, if maybe we’ve lost the deeper meaning in the words of the Great commision.

If I asked you what is the great commision in its simplest form, what would you say? I feel like I ask my students this question fairly often. Or I’ll ask “what is our main job as Christians?” and I often get the answer back - make disciples.

And while this is true in the most basic sense, I think it’s lacking a little bit. Because Church, the great commision isn’t just a command to make disciples ( every world religion. every political agenda, every socail agenda wants to make disciples) That great commsion rather is instruction on how to make a certain KIND of disciple.

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

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.”

and while I could spend a whole sermon unpacking the great commision - that part that I want us to focus on is this little part

Matthew 28:19 (ESV)

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

because one of the 2 defining characteristisc of the disciples Jesus wants us to become and make - is this phrase. To be baptized into the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So what does that phrase mean? If we’re honest, I think we have reduced that phrase to mean - when we dunk someone in water, make sure you say these words “I baptize you in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit”. But the more I study this verse, the more I am convinced that Jesus meant a little more than that. See the word baptize means to be immersed into something. And yes, it literally means to be immeresed into water, but for the early chruch it was so much more than an immersion into water. It was immersion into a new way of life, and more importantly, a new family.

And some of your bibles probably have a footnote next to the word “in” - and it might say also “into” and I think that’s important. Because this passage could read “baptize them into the name of the Father, Son and Spirit”. And so what I think Jesus is saying to us is not “make sure you recite this phrase when you baptize these new converts”- I think Jesus is descrbing the God of Christianity, and the faith that they are being immeresed into when we decide to become a Christian. And so to take the doctrine of the Trinity out of Christianity is to miss the instructions of Christ altogether.

- Let me say it another way, if we aren’t brining people into an understanding of the Triune God, then we arent making the kind of disciples Jesus instructed us to.

And even more, if we miss the Trinity - we aren’t just getting the Great commision wrong - we’re also getting God wrong, because is inherritnely Trinity.

Let me ask you this question - “ what’s the best word you can use to summerize who God is?” What words come to mind? Creator? Holy? Love?

Now I want us to think about this question - “What was God doing before creation?”

So lets look at these. If God - at core of who he is - is creator, what does God need in order to be who he is? Say again a creation! So before creation, is God not God since he hasnt created yet? and maybe you said Holy? Holy means to be set apart. So if God is at his core is Holy - what does he need to be who he is? something unholy, right something to be set apart from. But God doesnt need anything to be who He is.

And so maybe you said love. And you’d be right, but only if God is Trinity. Think about it - if God was only one person - how could he be love? Right, if God was only one person - then before creation he’s just sitting there by himself and when he creates the world it’s either out of loneliness or boredom.

But what the doctrine of the Trinity helps us understand is that before creation, God is love because God in himself is a community. God is a party. Before creation the Father was loving the Son and the Spirit, the Son was loving the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit was loving the Father and the Son. and out of the overflow of this love God creates us - not because he has a Ben sized whole in his heart that he needed to fill, but God creates out of an overflow of love, because He wants us to enjoy in the perfect love ithat has always been and always will be inherrintly in the Godhead.

- Church, if we get the Trinity wrong, we are, at best, viewing God in very shallow sense, and at worst missing the God revealed to us in the Bible entirely. What seperates Christianity from every other monotheist religion, Judaism, Islam ect - IS this doctrine of the Trintiy. Without the Trinity, you lose Christianity.

I could go on, but we’ve got to my on

#2 - The Trinity elaborates the activity God

So if God is Trinity then everything that God does, every person of the Trinity plays a part. I’m running out of time so I’ll shorten this point a bit - but we’ve talked about creation a bit. That God the Father speaks creation into exsistence, the Spirit of God is hovering over the water and the New Testament that Christ was the means of creation, that through Jesus the world comes into being. So we see all three memebers of the Trinity at work in creation.

Another prime example is Salvation. I think often times we think the message of the gospel or good news is that Jesus died for our sins and on the 3rd day resurected and if we beleive in Him we’ll get to spend eternity with him. AND IT IS - some of you were about about to send some emails to Trae, I could tell. BUT if you look at Ephesians chapter 1 - we see a more robust understanding of whats happening in Salvation.

Eph 1

So every member of the Trinity accomplishes our salvation -God the Father loves us, choses us, and predestines us. He is the initaitor of our salvation. He sends the Son to be the fulfillment of our salvation, right? That the Son redeems us through is death and reconciles us to God. And then He sends the Spirit to seal our salvation, to hold it until we return. Is anyone struggling with assurance today? Are you struggling with the idea of are you really saved? Does God really love me, am I good enough, will I make it? I’ll never try to convince you that you are saved, becasue that’s between you and God. But I wonder if those of you struggling with assurance today, maybe need to meditate on the doctrine of the Trinity. That God the Father chose you, Christ redeems you and the Spirit - God in you - WILL hold you until the end.

And lastly

#3 - The Trinity allows for communion with God

True communion with the God of the Bible in by nature Trinitarian. I’m not saying if you cant express the Trinity you cant have a relationship with God - or that if you just have Jesus you cant be saved.

- But what I am sayingis - if you want to experience a deeper communion with God, I think a good place to start is by deepening your understanding of God - and the doctrine of the Trinity is the doctrine of God

1 John 1:1-4

1 John 1:1–4 ESV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

So what happens if we miss the Trinity? Well I think often we can fall into what i call a “blob mentality”. That we know Jesus and we know the Spirit, but when we pray we’re praying to a God thats kinda blobbed all of them together. And this blob sits up in the sky right, because thats where heaven is. And when we pray our prayers float through the airwaves and sometimes they get their, but if we’re honest sometimes it feels like they dont. Maybe you’ve never fallen into this, but I know I have. How many of us are here today, you’ve been coming to church and maybe you’ve known Jesus - but if you’re honest God just feels distant. You dont know what it is, but more and more you feel like God isnt talking to you, you feel like their must be some interference in the airwaves because you’re prayers just arent reaching up there. And if you’re deeply honest, God just seems to have given you the cold shoulder

I wonder, does that God resemble moorrrree your experiences with humans, then the God revealed in the Bible?

Because the God revealed to us in the Bible is a community. And the good news of the Gospel is that we are invited to partake in that communion. But ff we get the Trinity wrong, we will never have the communion with God described in the New Testament. God will always feel distant.

If we fail to see one God as three persons - we’ll project our human experiences onto God. And he’ll be distant, or cold, or we’ll never be good enough for him.

If we fail to see the eternal Son sent by the eternal Father- we’ll never feel loved by God. We’ll spend our whole lives either rejecting the love of God, or trying to earn it. But if we understand that Jesus, being fully God and fully man was betrayed by his friend, tried by religous leaders, handed over and beaten an inch from death by roman soldiers, hung on a cross, stabbed in the side with a spear, and died for our behalf - how can we know that and not feel loved by God. God himself died for you, what else can He do to show you that he loves you.

And If we fail to understand the Spirit - we will always feel distant from God. He’ll always be an old man in the sky that our prayers sometimes get to - if the weathers good, but if we’ve messed up or if we’ve sinned too much -than God isnt with me anymore. But when we rightly understand the Trinity- we see that God the Father loved us so much that he sent his Son to reconcile us to God. And when Jesus had to leave, God does something even better than having God in flesh walking around with us. He puts the Spirit of God inside of our flesh. And so often we feel distant from God, but if you are a beleiver than the Spirit of God lives in you. You cant be far from God, God is inside of you! and when we recognize that, that through the Holy Spirit - God is in us- How can we feel far from God? because at every moment, we are at the right hand of the Father because thats where Jesus is - and through the Spirit we are IN Christ. So at every moment we can boldy approach the throne of grace -and enjoy the perfect fellowship of the Father Son and Spirit - knowing that the Triune God has brought us into fellowship with Him - and will keep us in fellowship with himself forever.

I’ll close with the benediction from Paul in 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.