The Trinity: Connecting Point

Our Spiritual Worldview will determine what we experience spiritually and will determine how we understand spiritual events.

Last week, we saw from Scripture a man named Simon saw acts of the Holy Spirit before him and thought that it was some kind of spiritual use of power he could be trained in. So he offered Peter money so he could have the Holy Spirit too. His spiritual worldview lead Simon to see the Holy Spirit as a force to be manipulated rather than the person he is.

The Holy Spirit is a person – not a force, or some kind of spiritual power, we can manipulate. Last week we saw that when we know the Holy Spirit as a person, we can know the power that God desires for each believer to have.

This brings us to today. Who is the Holy Spirit? To many of us – the Holy Spirit is just vague. As we understand who the Holy Spirit is we can know the power of the Spirit. Mysterious Paradox: Holy Spirit a person, yet the inseparable God. Our human mind wants to reject a paradox. But the Holy Spirit is a paradox to us - A person, yet the inseparable God. We can never fully understand how this reality is. If we see the role of the Holy Spirit within the Godhead, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, we can then see the significance of the Holy Spirit in our lives - a significance we scarcely understand. It is the person of the Holy Spirit who empowers our lives. To be in close relationship with him is what – you are missing…….

The trinity is very difficult to understand. Muslims claim we worship three gods, and they only one. Most people who know even a little about Christianity know of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. We hear it at baptisms, funerals even in songs on the radio. But what does it mean?

Heresy and the Trinity.

Early on in Christianity – there was quite a bit of speculation about what the trinity means. The nicean creed was finally written and agreed upon the trinity as being one substance, but three persons, all equal, divine.

Arius said that God the Father ("unbegotten"), always existing, was separate from the lesser Jesus Christ ("only-begotten"), The Father, working through the Son, created the Holy Spirit, which was subservient to the Son as the Son was to the Father.

Arius made the mistake of ranking the trinity and making equals, unequal.

Sabellius, (also known as modalism) is the second-century belief that the three persons of the Trinity are merely different modes or aspects of God, rather than three distinct persons. One God who is seen in three different ways. Historic Sabellianism taught that God the Father was the only person of the Godhead, there are no distinctions.

Today we see a modern form happening: the Oneness doctrine. Itsays that this one member of the Godhead is Jesus. The Oneness doctrine claims that when Scripture describes the Father or the Holy Spirit, it is actually Jesus, who is only revealing Himself as one of the other modes of God. Some Oneness followers call this the "Jesus Only doctrine".

So WE see the Father, Son and holy Spirit as fully equal, as one and as different persons, distinct from each other. If we look at the activity of the trinity we can see how each applies in our life.

Activity of The Trinity.

Revelations 5:1-7 gives us a glimpse into the activity of the trinity. It describes the trinity, their relationship, & their work .

Basis: Calvin.

To the Father is attributed the beginning of activity.

To the Son – wisdom council and ordered disposition of all things.

To the Spirit – power and efficacy of that activity.

The Trinity works together to accomplish.

Father: Initiator of all things.

Rev 5:1

Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne

a scroll with writing on both sides

and sealed with seven seals.

2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice,

“Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”

3 But no one in heaven or on earth

or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it.

The Father- is who sits on the throne is a symbol divine seat of power and authority. He holds the Scroll. He issues the divine decree the symbol of Gods intention. Notice: The Father holds the scroll but does not open it. Is he able? – yes. But the Greek here means qualified. Who is qualified? Jesus.

The father initiates – how will his will be accomplished? Through the Lamb.

Son: Accomplishes the Father’s will.

6 Then I saw a Lamb,

looking as if it had been slain,