Why The Trinity Matters Series

Why the Trinity Matters

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - June 11, 2006

*Does the trinity matter to me? As Baptists, we believe that God exists as a trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, three persons. The Baptist Faith and Message puts it this way:

-“There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.” (1)

*One God, three persons, but why does the trinity matter to me?

1. First of all, it matters because God has confirmed the trinity to us.

*We see one of God’s clearest confirmations of the Trinity here in Matt 3:16&17,

16. Then Jesus, when He had been baptized, came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

17. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’’

*Here we see God revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God has confirmed the trinity to us, and we have much more evidence from His Word. Nave’s Topical Bible gives over 50 references to help point us to the trinity.

*Scriptures like Luke 1:34-35...

34. Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?’’

35. And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

*John 3:34-35 is another example. Speaking of Jesus, these verses say:

34. "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

35. "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.

*John 14:15-17 shows us the trinity. There, Jesus said:

-“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

*Then in John 15:26, Jesus said:

-But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

*We have evidence of the trinity many places in God’s Word, and Dave Hunt helps us understand it this way:

-The Bible presents a God who did not need to create any beings to experience love, communion and fellowship. This God is complete in Himself, being three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, separate and distinct, yet at the same time eternally one God. They loved and communed and fellowshipped with each other and took counsel together before the universe, angels or man were brought into existence.

-Isaiah "heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" (Is 6:8). Moses revealed the same counseling together of the Godhead: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..."

-If God is [not a trinity], then why is the plural Hebrew noun elohim (literally "gods") used for God repeatedly? That Hebrew word elohim (gods) occurs about 2,500 times in the Old Testament. Genesis 1:1 reads, "In the beginning, elohim created the heaven and the earth"; i.e., literally, "gods created the heaven and the earth." Though a single noun is available, yet the plural form is consistently used for God.

-And in violation of grammatical rules, with few exceptions, singular verbs and pronouns are used with this plural noun. Why? Because our God is 3 in 1. (2)

*We have evidence of the trinity both in God’s Word and in His world. In Romans 1:20 Paul says that God’s "eternal power and Godhead" are seen in the creation He made.

-Dr. Nathan Wood pointed out years ago that the triune nature of God is stamped on His creation. The universe is divided into three: space, matter and time, and each of these is divided into three.

-Space, for example, is composed of length, breadth and width, each separate and distinct in itself, yet the three are one. Length, breadth and width are not three spaces, but three dimensions comprising one space.