SERIES MYSTERIOUS 3
The Doctrine of The Holy Trinity
week 1 : Tethered To the Trinity
Pastor Timothy Porter
Text: Matthew 28:19 / 2 Corinthians 13:14
INTRODUCTION:
Every aspect of the Christian life is tethered to a biblical understanding of One God in three persons.
In this first installment, I want to lay a foundation for the entire series by answering two relevant questions:
1.) What exactly is the Trinity?
2.) Why does the Trinity matter to us today?
I know Dolly Parton????? I have stayed in her hotel [dream more resort] I have been to her theme park [Dollywood]
I have seen here in shows and concerts. I have even talked with people who are connected with her and who know her. I have even been close to her and heard her talk. I know Dolly Parton!!
Are you kidding me - I don't know her ! I just know of her.
? We often talk about God in the same terms.
“Oh, I know God.
I’ve read some stuff he has written down.
I’ve visited his house, occasionally -- especially during Christmas and Easter.
I know some people who are really connected to him. I know God.”
No, you don’t. You know about God, but you don’t really know God.
That’s precisely why we are beginning a series called Mysterious 3.
We want this series to be a series that doesn’t just tell you about God but helps us to really get to know God on an intimate level.
God has revealed himself to us as Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
It’s the foundation of Christianity.
The deepest questions of life are, “What is God like? Who is God? Who is he?” He’s all about the Trinity.
This study is paramount for all of us because Trinitarian implications loom large.
? For example:
>How do you know that you are going to heaven? The answer is the Trinity.
>How do you know that your sins have been forgiven and forgotten? The answer is the Trinity.
>How can you have an incredible marriage, deep intimacy and communication? How? The answer is the Trinity.
>How can your family operate from the same page? The answer is the Trinity.
>How can you have the power to overcome that hurtful habit, that substance abuse or that relational hang-up? The answer is the Trinity.
>Why do you have a desire for unity? The trinity. Diversity? The Trinity. Equality? The Trinity.
I believe, will change the course of our lives. We are answering the question, “What is God like and how does that affect and play out in my existence as well?”
What is the Trinity? The Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We know that. But, specifically, the word “Trinity” means, “tri-unity” or, “three in oneness.”
? I’m want to give you three statements right now.
Here’s the first one: God is three persons.
Here’s the second one: each is fully God.
Here’s the third one: there is one God.
So God is One in essence and Three in persons
The Trinity is so massive and such a marvelous mystery that even when we get to Heaven it will still be mysterious.
? So we have to understand our limitations.
We Are Limited By Our Humanity
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV) 8 “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD. 9 ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”
God is our ceator; We are His creatures [sinners]
“The Trinity is a truth that proves that God is smarter than we are.” - Pastor Tim
We Are Limited By Our Language
1 Corinthians 13:11-12 (NIV) 11 “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
In a Nutshell
>Our Limitations Should Not Deter Our Explorations - [Disciple means learner]
>God is mysterious but not irrational
>God is knowable but not comprehensible
>"We don't have to understand it to experience it"
The Trinity is implicit in scripture. It is not explicit. You will not find the word “Trinity” in the Bible. You can search from Genesis all the way to the maps. (They have maps in the back.) It’s not in there. You will not see in scripture where it says, “Here is the Trinity -- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.” It’s implicit. The deity of Christ, Jesus being fully God and fully man, is implicit, not explicit, in scripture. It’s there, and for two thousand years, it’s been recognized. But, you will not find the word.
THE WHY OF THE TRINITY
1.) It Refines Our Relationship With God
The song I learned in Sunday school at Croos Roads Baptist Church "Deep and Wide
I beleieve God wants us to be deep and wide. The Trinity will help us grow deep and wide.
In Jeremiah 9:23-24, the Lord says, “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me.” “Knows me.”
This is God speaking. So, the number one goal in life, our number one agenda, should be to know God. If we are going to know God, we have got to understand something about his personality -- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit -- and how he reveals himself to us.
Look at what the Apostle Paul prayed for as he talked to the Christians in Ephesus. He said, “My prayer is that these people would know God through the Trinity.”
Check this out. In Ephesians 1:17 , Paul said, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”
2.) It Centers Our Understanding Of The Gospel
Let’s talk about centeredness & alignment for a second.
Here is something that can happen in our lives. If we are not careful in this me-istic culture, we can think that we are the center of the Gospel. Do you know what the Gospel is? The Gospel is the Good News.
We can think that we are the center. We can actually tell ourselves, “It’s all about me. God needs me.
God created me because he was lonely, and there was a hole in his heart. So, weak and pitiful God created me. I am the center of the Gospel.”
That line of thinking is wrong. It will not hold biblical water. God does not need you or me.
Within the Trinity, God had, has and will have perfect fellowship, perfect relationship, perfect harmony, perfect unity, and perfect individuality. He does not need you or me.
He created us because of His love, His grace and His mercy. "You could say love wanted something to love"
But, God does not need us.
A lot of people are running around and thinking, “Wow, God needs me on his team. I bet God is saying, ‘Man, I’m lucky to have her,’ or, ‘I’m lucky to have him.’”
Listen to the words of John Piper. “Unless we begin with God in this way,” in other words, God being the center of the Gospel, “when the Gospel comes to us, we will inevitably put ourselves at the center of the Gospel. We will feel that our value, rather than God’s value, is the driving force of the Gospel. We’ll trace the Gospel back to God’s need for us instead of tracing it back to the sovereign grace that rescues sinners in need of God.
God doesn’t exist for us. We exist for God. The greatest thing we can do is to know God and to realize that it is all about God.
3.) It Defines The Uniqueness Of Christianity
You can throw every major world religion into one box -- Christianity, will blow the lid off the box, because of the Trinity.
The Trinity Is Not:
Not three Gods (Tritheism)
Not one God appearing di erently (Modalism)
Not unequal persons (Arianism)
the Trinity is so unique, and it’s so one-of-a-kind, that there is nothing even close to it in the other major world religions.
1 Corinthians 1:20,25 say, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? … For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
We must worship God as he has revealed himself to us, and not just in ways that we, in our finiteness, can understand.
What is so interesting about the Trinity is that a lot of us are experiencing Trinitarian blessings without even realizing it.
If you have become a Christian, then you have experienced the Trinity.
If you have been baptized, then you have experienced the Trinity.
If you read God’s Word, the Bible, then you experience the Trinity.
If you are married, then you are experiencing the Trinity. It’s all about the Trinity.
Think about this with me. The Trinity has existed forever. Just think about that -- forever!
Everything we know of has a beginning and an ending. The Trinity -- God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are co-existent and co-eternal.
People say, sometimes, that God is omniscient. That means he is all knowing.
He is omnipresent. That means he is everywhere.
He is omnipotent. That means he is allpowerful.
When I say those terms, we think about God the Father. But, don’t just think about God the Father. Those terms, those attributes, are true with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as well. They have always existed together in perfect unity, in perfect harmony, and in perfect uniqueness.
The decision that we make is a Trinitarian decision.
We believe that God the Father sent God the Son to die on the cross for our sins and rise again.
We believe that God the Son ascended back to the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit.
Once we receive that, we receive the total package.
We are tethered to the Trinity. That’s the decision.
The process occurs as we get to know God better, deeper and richer.
