Introduction
Welcome to Week 2 in our series foundations with the Bible engagement app. I'm so glad that you've chosen to join us this morning as we continue to look at our foundations in the word and what we believe here at gateway Christian community.
If you missed last week, I'm really sorry but it didn't get recorded you had to be here but last week we talked about how the Bible is the inspired word of God useful in teaching us what is true making us realize what is wrong in our lives correcting us when we're wrong and teaching us what to do right. Further the Bible is what God uses us to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
This week we're talking about something that is so fundamental to Christianity and to humanity as a whole. Today we're talking about who God is and understanding his true nature towards his creation. The Bible never gives an argument for the existence of God it's simply recognizes that God must be. Genesis 1:1 starts “in the beginning God…” Psalm 14:1 declares, “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!”
The existence of God is so fundamental to human thinking that to abandon this concept is to embark into a wild desert that leaves us without meaning or purpose. Today there are plenty of people that question the existence of God but just about without fail they are searching for meaning and purpose in this life. Recently I've been working with an individual who had lost his purpose when his marriage fell apart. He had said to me I don't need to go to church they don't teach true Christianity anyway I've read the Bible, and it just doesn't seem like there is such a God as the God the Bible talks about. We spent almost an hour talking about spiritualism and in the end, he still admitted that there must be a God, but he just doesn't believe in the God of the Bible.
Well church Satan’s goal is to steal kill and destroy he is the father of lies and if he can get you to deny the existence of God or deny the God of the Bible then he has gotten you on a path straight to hell and it will only change when you acknowledge the existence of God the creator and who he is.
Historical Story
In 1913 a great crowd gathered in the Arroyo Seco Of South Pasadena, California, to hear Mrs. Mariah Woodworth-Etter and what was called a worldwide Pentecostal camp meeting. One night an immigrant from Danzig, Germany John Scheppe, woke everyone up shouting the name of Jesus. He had just received a vision that made him feel that Jesus needed to be given a greater honor.
One of the pastors present, Fank J Ewart, a former Baptist minister, soon took advantage of this and said that the best way to give honor to Jesus was to have everybody rebaptized water in the name of Jesus only. Soon somewhere declaring that those who refuse this rebaptism would actually lose their salvation. They declared that there is only one person in the godhead: Jesus, who filled the offices or modes of father son and Holy Spirit as the time or occasion demanded. Those who revived this doctrine soon became known as Jesus name, Jesus only, or oneness, and they referred to their doctrine as quote the new issue End Quote although they had actually revived a very old heresy dating all the way back to the 3rd century AD but had been rejected by the majority of Christians in those days.
Shortly after the Assemblies of God was formed in 1914 some began to spread this doctrine among the movements. To counteract this, the general counsel of the Assemblies of God met in 1916 To define the terms the distinctions and relationships of the godhead and to solidify this foundational statement:
WE Believe there is one God, eternally existent in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; John 14:16–17).1
But who is this God that we're talking about? From the beginning of time the world has tried to define their idea of God and make him in their own image… to mold him as idols in the form of man or of animals to be able to control who he is but this goes against the very nature of who God is and the fact that we , humankind, are made in his image.
From a secular viewpoint God is one of many ways to get to heaven. Many see God as the author of the chaos that is in the world today. So many equate the creator God with the god of Islam. We worship the same God, right? That is what the god of this world would have you believe. But it is not true. The truth is that many people believe in a god of their own creation and expect him to live up to their expectations.
Last week we talked about the authority of the inspired word of God and that all of our doctrinal statements the statements of which we stand on and believe our foundations need to be rooted in the Bible and so there is one key verse in the bible that we should all know:
Deuteronomy 6:4 (NKJV)
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!”
This passage known as the Hebrew Shemá which translates listen in Hebrew is the fundamental statement of Israel’s faith. The rabbi Hillel from the 1st century BC spoke of the Shemá as the central theological idea of the Hebrew Bible calling the rest mere commentary. The whole statement starts with the word “Shemá” which is translated here as “hear.”
The book of Deuteronomy was written by Moses and if he were to use, he would have said something like “hey Israel, listen to this!” Or “Listen up this is important!”
The word here used for Lord as you'll see in many of your bibles is all capital Lord is the Hebrew word Yahweh which we'll talk about a little bit later. The word God is that is used here in the Hebrew is the plural form thus it translates our God the Lord is one. The significance of the plural would not have been apparent to the original readers; However, when we look at this as Christians, we see the underlying of the doctrine the three persons of the same substance and the one godhead. And remember we talked last week how God not only inspired them but also inspired their word choice when writing the Bible. So, the words used in the original language are very important.
Trinity
The word Trinity is never used in the Bible but the understanding of God being one God in three persons and each person having a different relationship to the other in a different role in the godhead is seen clearly throughout scripture. In fact, the very first example of this would be found in Genesis 1:26-27
God has not yet made man and there are no references here to the angels and they weren't part of creation for genesis 11 says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He didn't take upon himself anybody else to help him with this endeavor.
Read Genesis 1:1-3
but we do see a distinction in verse 2 where it says quote and the spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said let there be light. There seems to be a distinction between the spirit of God that we now call the Holy Spirit and this voice of God. So even here we've identified 2 persons of the godhead.
If you look at the parallel passage in John 1:1 we get a little more clarity into what is going on in this creation story.
Read John 1:1-4
So, the one who is speaking is God the father and we know from John 114 that the word becomes flesh and that is Jesus and so we can understand that it was the spirit that was hovering observing everything going on it was God the father who spoke and it was through the sun that everything was created and everything received life through Jesus. Next week we'll talk more about Jesus specifically but I want you to understand this: Jesus did not have his beginning as a member of the godhead when he was born of a virgin but rather he existed as a member of the godhead from the beginning of time and it was at the time of his birth that his human body was born but he was always there in the beginning.
We have one God, but the word God is plural because there are three persons in the godhead, and we see this expressed in the Trinity. The first time that humanity sees the three persons of the godhead in one instance was when John the Baptist baptizes Jesus:
Read Matthew 3:13-17
Matthew's eyewitness testimony is one of the clearest we have of the three persons of the Trinity. The three members of the godhead throughout the Bible and they're mentioned together in numerous places in the New Testament:
Matthew 28:19 (NLT)
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 13:14
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
John 14:16-17
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
There appear to be at least three reasons to believe the doctrine of the trinity.
1) The bible teaches it…
2) The church has always believed it…
3) No other explanation makes any sense…
Someone has said it this way: If you try to explain the Trinity, you will lose your mind. But if you deny it, you will lose your soul.
Denying the doctrine of the trinity denies the God of the bible.
So how do we explain the trinity?
There are many material application that have been used to explain this doctrine, and all of them fall short because they are trying to explain an eternal and supernatural truth with practical and natural applications.
Water can exist as solid, liquid, or steam. That's okay, but usually water only exists in one state at a time. The scientist, Dr. Henry Morris, says that the entire universe is trinitarian by design. The universe consists of three things: matter, space, and time. Take away any one of those three and the universe would cease to exist. But each one of those is itself a trinity.
Matter = mass + energy + motion
Space = length + height + breadth
Time = past + present + future
Thus, the whole universe witnesses to the character of the God who made it (cf. Psalm 19:1).
It's important to remember that all illustrations fail eventually. They don't "prove" the Trinity, they simply help us understand the concept.
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
One God…Three Persons…All different yet equal…
Names of God
Read Romans 1:19-20
The Bible clearly acknowledges the existence of God that can be acknowledged through the general revelation of nature written all around us. However, to truly understand who our God is, I believe one of the best ways to understand who God is, is to look at how he describes himself in the Bible through his names.
1) ‘El, the Hebrew word God the singular form occurs over 250 times in the Bible and emphasizes the idea of strength:
Genesis 14:18-20
2) ‘Elohim used over 2,000 times in the Old Testament, plural form of ‘Eloah found 42 times in the book of job and implies the plurality of the godhead and is connected with God's creative power and providential care of the universe and humanity.
3) Yahweh translated as “LORD” in many English versions. It is the covenant-keeping, formal name of God. It literally means “he will continue to be.” And implies that he will show what kind of God he is by what he does and especially to what he is connected or promised.
Malachi 2:5
“The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and peace, and that is what I gave them. This required reverence from them, and they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name.
Malachi 3:6
“I am the LORD, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.
Deuteronomy 31:6
So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
For the sake of time, I’m just going to give the references to each of these names but recognize the importance of the characteristics and nature of God as we review these. If you're using EU version Bible app, be sure to save the notes here so that you can come back and reference them at a later time with these names.
4) ‘El Shaddai—God Almighty (Gen 17:1)
5) ‘El Elyon—God Most High (Gen 14:18)
6) ‘El Ro’i—The God who sees me (Gen. 16:13)
7) ‘El ‘Elohe Yisra’el—God, the God of Israel (Gen 22:20)
8) Yahweh-ropheka—The Lord is your Physician, The Lord who heals you (Ex 15:26)
9) Yahweh-nissi—The Lord my Banner (Ex 17:15)
10) Yahweh-shalom—The Lord is Peace (Judges 6:24)
11) Yahweh-ro’i—The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23:1)
12) Yahweh-tsidkenu—The Lord, our Righteousness-the one who forgives (Jer. 23:6)
13) The Name of the new Jerusalem: Yahweh-Shammah—The Lord is there (Ezekiel 28:35)
14) Yahweh-sabaoth—The Lord of hosts (Psalm 148:2)
CONCLUSION
We serve an amazing God! He transcends time and rules over his creation. He doesn't change and not only is he the same yesterday today and forever he is also the alpha and the Omega the 1st and the last. He is omnipotent, all powerful he is omnipresent everywhere at once, and omniscient, all knowing.
I believe the only real response to a message like today is worshipping him for who he is God almighty the most high the creator of the universe the one who forgives the one who sees us for who we are in our circumstances who is always with us and never fails us never abandon us but is always there. Let's stand and worship him together.
• May the Lord bless you and keep you.
• 25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
• 26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’
