SERMON BRIEF
Date Written: January 2003
Date Preached: January 8, 2003
Church: BBC (PM) Wednesday
FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS
Series: What the Bible Says…
Title: About the Trinity
Text: 1 John 5:7
Introduction:
The doctrine of the Trinity is a difficult doctrine to understand and even more difficult to teach.
It is something that is a distinctive mark within Christianity. Although, many other religions carry with them some semblance of a trinity or a ‘triad’ NONE of them carry with them the similarities to the Christian teaching concerning the Trinity.
For the Christian, the Trinity must be understood, but it also must be understood that the Trinity cannot be ‘proven’ from a standpoint of human reasoning.
The Trinity, or the Triune or Trinitarian nature of God is divinely revealed and cannot be sorted out and reasoned from strictly a human perspective.
We find the Trinity interwoven all throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Bible presents God as a rational Spirit being who is infinite in His attributes of love, holiness, wisdom, power, majesty, justice, truth, and goodness.
We can also find the Bible presenting God as One who exists externally in 3 persons, but yet is still on in substance and in purpose.
First, of all tonight I want us to know and to fully understand that there is ONLY one God. There is not 3 as many say the Trinity leads us to believe. There is only one God and God’s Word is how we can know this.
Let’s look up and read some passages of Scripture tonight. Somebody read Duet 6:4-5.
This is how EVERY Jewish synagogue service is opened. God wanted the Israel nation to know this and He desires us to know it as well.
Someone read Exodus 20:3.
Here again we find God relating His singleness to His people.
Someone read Isaiah 45:5-6
Isaiah is repeating what God has already set forth to the nation. He is the ONLY God and they should worship Him alone.
Let’s look at some passages from the NT that speak of God. Look at James 2:19, have someone read. We can also look at 1 Cor 8:4-6 have someone read.
Here again we find that Scripture clearly notes that there is only one God, not three.
There has always only been one God. But in the garden when Adam and Eve sinned, they gave into ‘gods’ of their own and from that humanity has created god after god to appease its own selfish desires.
Today we find idolatry and god-worship going on in even Christian households b/c they are lifting up to a ‘god’ status material things. We have become a nation of idol worshipers without really noticing it.
The Bible is VERY clear that there is only ONE God, but it is also just as clear that that ONE God can and does demonstrate and illuminate Himself to this world in MANY different ways.
God has appeared in the form of a pillar of cloud and a pillar of smoke. God has appeared as the Commander of the Army of the Lord.
He chooses how and to whom He appears, and regardless of how many forms or personalities He chooses to reveal… He is still ONLY one God.
This ONE God we speak of has chosen to reveal Himself through the existence of 3 persons.
We can find the very first inference to the Trinity found in Gen 1:1. In the beginning GOD (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth…
When we think about our God and His capability to create our universe… to merely speak it into existence, then limit Him to only one mode of expression or vision… this sells our God short and ignores His true majesty and power.
There are MANY passages in the Bible that use MORE than one Hebrew word for God, making a distinction between God the Father and God the Son.
Read Psalm 45:6-7 and give commentary about this Messianic prophecy.
Read Psalm 110:1 and give commentary on this Messianic prophecy.
Read Hosea 1:7 and give commentary
There are other passages that refer to the Angel of Jehovah, such as Gen 16:7-14, 22:11-16; Exodus 3:2-5 and Judges 13:20-22.
The amazing fact of the NT is the way in which it presents the doctrine of the Trinity without any struggle or controversy.
We find that all of the teachings of Jesus carry with them a Trinitarian theme. Jesus speaks of the Father, and Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit.
We find Jesus doing this WITHOUT apology or explanation. Have someone read John 14:16-17 and someone else read John 15:26
In 2 Cor 13:14 the apostle Paul gives an apostolic benediction. This prayer is a prayer directed to Jesus Christ for His grace.
This is a prayer directed to God the Father for His love. And this prayer is directed to the Holy Spirit for His fellowship.
Here in this passage the deity and equality of each person of the Trinity are taken for granted by the apostle Paul. God DOES exist as 3 persons, and each of the three is equal in power and glory and is of one substance.
Finally we can go to what we deem the purpose of the NT church, the Great Commission. Have someone read Matt 28:18-20.
Jesus is instructing them to go into all the world ‘baptizing in the name [singular, not names plural] of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is in this passage I find great comfort in the unity and oneness of the Triune God that we serve.
God the Father is GOD! There were many occasions that Jesus prayed to the Father. In 1 Cor Paul declares, “to us there is but ONE God, the Father, of who are all things…”
And there is another instance where again we find Paul declaring… that he was sent as an apostle by Jesus Christ and God the Father.
The Son is God! In John 1:1, 14 we find John saying, “…In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word WAS God… the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…”
In Colossians 2:9 we find Paul writing, “For in Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form…”
In Heb 1:3 we find the deity of Jesus is revealed and declared as Jesus is said to have been the exact representation of God, the exact expression and substance of God.
We also find the attributes that the Bible ascribes to God are also given to Jesus Christ. Jesus is attributed HOLINESS in John 6:69; Heb 7:26) Jesus is attributed immutability (unchanging nature) in Heb 1:11-12 and 13:8.
We find Jesus attributed omnipotence (all powerful) in Matt 28:18
We find Jesus attributed omniscience (all knowing) in Mt 9:4 and John 16:30.
In John 1:4, 11:25 and 14:6 Jesus is attributed true life.
We can also find Jesus attributed as an eternal being just like God in John 1:1 and John 8:58 and John 17:5 and Heb 1:8. Read verses.
Jesus is attributed omnipresence (he is EVERYWHERE all the time) in Matt 28:20, and
Jesus is given the attribute of being the judge of the world in Matt 25:31-46.
Finally, we can find that Jesus is attributed with the Creation event in John 1:3 and Col 1:16-17.
Jesus, the Son of God is God just as God the Father is God, but we can also see that…
The Holy Spirit IS God. Peter declared in his words to Ananias that the HS is God in Act 5:3-4. Paul declared the same thing in 1 Cor 2:11.
Jesus, Himself, implied this in the Great Commission in Matt 28:19-20 that the HS is equal in stature and power to God the Father and God the Son.
The Trinity is something very difficult to comprehend and make sense of in our heads, but like I said at the beginning of this teaching… it is NOT reachable thru human reasoning, but only thru DIVINE REVELATION.
We cannot know the truth of the Trinity lest God reveal it to us. He has revealed it in His Word and continues to reveal it to believers today through His Word and thru His works.
PRAY!
