Posts
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The number three is present in many
places in the natural world.
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In the art world, red, yellow, and blue are the three primary colour pigments
used to create all other colors.
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In the world of science, matter exists in three states: solid, liquid, and gas.
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Water, for example, is a liquid when
we turn on the tap, a gas when we see the steam rising from a boiling pot, or a
solid when we grab ice cubes from the freezer.
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Of course, I would not want to overlook
a very special number in mathematics, pi.
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Pi
is 3.14159 followed by endless random numbers. (Think on that!)
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The number pi is indispensable in
trigonometry and geometry and in calculating the area of the circle.
Interesting that it’s an infinite 3!
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These are just a small handful of the
examples of the pervasive presence of the number three in the created world.
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What could the abundant presence of
the number three in nature mean?
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I believe that it, like everything
else in creation, points us to God.
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Many people today think that the
doctrine of the Trinity is neither important nor relevant, but is that true?
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Is
the Trinity irrelevant or unimportant?
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When we refer to the Trinity, we mean
one God who is eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
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Each person is equal and distinct but
of the same being or essence.
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The Trinity is the mystery of the
Godhead.
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The Father is God, the Son is God, the
Spirit is God, and not one is more God than the others.
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God would not be much of a God if we,
in our limited imperfection, could totally define, classify, and put him into a
box. Would he?
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We cannot understand the depths of our
own personalities, so how could we expect to know and master the personhood of
God?
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The Trinity is not against reason, but
above it.
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There is an old argument that goes
something like this: Do you believe the Father is God? Yes. Do you believe the
Son is God? Yes. Do you believe the Holy Spirit is God? Yes.
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Since you believe that, then you
believe in three gods, therefore, believing in the Trinity is idolatry, not to
mention the word trinity does not even occur in the Bible.
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How do we answer such a question?
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To deal with such an argument, we need
to go to the very source mentioned by the accuser.
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Let’s see what the Bible has to say.
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Let’s begin with the beginning, in Genesis 1:26, Then God said, “Let us
make man in our image, according to our likeness.”
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When I have a crazy day, I often talk
to myself, but does God talk out loud to nobody? Why is God talking to himself?
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Three times in this one sentence the
Bible uses plural pronouns.
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Is this the royal we, the plural of
majesty? Or is it something more?
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Genesis 1 also uses a plural noun for
God, Elohim, but every time the verb with Elohim is singular. What’s with that?
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Is it bad grammar on Moses’ part or is
it something much more?
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In Genesis 11:7 we find a similar comment by God, in which he is
talking to himself once more.
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“Come, let us go down and there
confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
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God keeps his own counsel, see Isaiah
40 and Romans 11, so he can’t be talking to the angels, therefore, he must be
talking to himself.
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Let’s flash way ahead in Scripture to
the prophet Isaiah.
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Isaiah
hears the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for
us?” (Isaiah 6:8, ESV)
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We see here something like what we saw
in Genesis 1 and 11.
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God shows the unity of his will with
“whom shall I send,” but he also speaks of himself like he is more than one and
the more is equal.
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Angels are not his equal, so he was
not talking to them, therefore, once again God must have been talking to
himself, keeping his own counsel.
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Jesus, while dealing with the constant
challenges of the Pharisees, used Psalm 110:1.
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Psalm
110
is a Psalm of King David, and through the whole Psalm the Lord is speaking to
David’s Lord.
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“The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my
right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” (Psalm 110:1, ESV)
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David was writing about God speaking
to David’s Lord.
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So, who was David’s Lord? From every
other Psalm David has written, we know that God is his Lord.
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We have the Lord speaking to David’s
Lord, who also happens to be the Lord.
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God says to David’s Lord, “Sit at my
right hand.”
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God is the King of Kings, in ancient
Jewish culture when the King invited someone to sit at the right hand that means
the King saw that person as his equal.
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Who but God is God’s equal?
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Then God says to David’s Lord, “until
I make your enemies your footstool.”
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Every time the Bible uses the word footstool
it is about God, and the Bible uses that term thirteen times.
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The important thing for us to remember
is that only one who is equal with God can use his footstool.
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Only God’s equal is considered his
right hand and only God’s equal can use his footstool.
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Let’s flash forward again to the New
Testament.
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The Trinity might be implied in the
Hebrew Scriptures, but is more clearly presented in the New Testament.
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Matthew
3:16-17, “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he
went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw
the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold,
a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased.’”
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Clearly, all three persons of the
Trinity are present in this event. The Son is there; the Spirit, in the form of
a dove, is present; and the Father speaks from heaven.
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There are numerous other passages that
teach that each person of the Trinity is God.
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Paul clearly indicates the Father is
God in this verse as is Jesus.
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Hebrews
1:8,
“But of the Son he [meaning God] says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and
ever, the sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of your kingdom.”
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Since the Father says of the Son that
his throne is for ever and that he is God, then who are we to argue with God?
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The Son is God.
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In addition, each member of the
Trinity is presented equally in the following passages.
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In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus commissions his disciples in Galilee,
commanding them to baptize new disciples in the name (singular) of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, signifying that God is one in name but of three
persons.
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In 2 Corinthians 13:14, we find the closing blessing of the apostle
Paul’s letter.
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All three persons of the Trinity are
mentioned equally, yet all three persons have a different function.
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“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2
Corinthians 13:14, ESV)
o 1 Peter 1:1-2,
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as
exiles dispersed abroad... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled
with the blood of Jesus Christ.” (CSB)
o According
to the written word of God, each member of the Trinity is equal, fully God, and
of one being.
o Why is the Trinity
relevant and important?
o #1. The Incarnation.
o John
wrote, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.”
(John 1:14, MSG)
o The
wonder of God breaking into the world as a human being could not possibly have
happened without a God of relationships who has always been in relationship
before anything was created.
o The
Bible does not picture sin as merely breaking God’s rules. Sin is something
much deeper; it is the breaking of relationship.
o If
God were not one God eternally existent in three persons, then he would not be
a God of relationship but a God of rules.
o Does
God have rules? Yes, he does, but those rules are primarily about how to have
relationships with him and with each other.
o If
God were only a God of rules and not a God of relationship, he never would have
sent his Son to die in our place.
o Without
the God who is three in one, there would be no Christmas, no cross, no empty
tomb, no church, no Spirit filled life, no second coming.
o #2. Understanding the
Gospel.
o 1
Peter 1:1-2, outlines very simply the role each member of the Trinity plays in
our salvation.
o Each
member’s contribution is unique: “according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be
sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.” (CSB)
o It
is God the Father’s plan; the Holy Spirit’s work of setting us apart for God;
and the perfect, sacrificial life of Jesus that redeems us.
o Without
the unique work of each member of the Godhead we would have no salvation.
o We
are saved from sin, death, and hell, but we are saved for an eternal
relationship with God and all who are in relationship with him.
o #3. Sharing the
Gospel.
o Jesus
said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.” (John 14:6, ESV)
o When
we share the gospel, we need to share the truth that it’s through Jesus that we
come into an intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.
o Peter
said of Jesus, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other
name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12, ESV)
o Jesus,
in his last words to his disciples, said, “But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in
all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV)
o Sharing
the gospel is an act of Trinitarian faith.
o People
must know they are saved only in the name of the Son, connected in an intimate
relationship with the Father through the Son, and sent by the Son with Holy
Spirit empowered witness.
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#4.
Prayer.
o When
we pray, each member of the Trinity is actively engaged.
o Jesus
taught us to pray to our Father in heaven (Matthew
6:9).
o Therefore,
God is listening attentively when we pray.
o Hebrews
tells us that the priesthood of Jesus is permanent, continuing forever, so he
completely saves those who draw near to God through him because he is always
interceding for us before the Father (Hebrews
7:24-25).
o If
we sin, Jesus is our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1).
o The
apostle Paul tells us in Romans that since we do not know how to pray as we
ought, the Spirit helps us in our weakness by interceding for us (Romans 8:26).
o Our
prayers are totally dependent on our God who is three in one.
o What
do we need to take home from today’s
message?
o Daily
trust, worship, and obey God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
o #1. Trust.
o We
need to trust that the nature of God is beyond our present understanding.
o We
need to trust what God says about himself without explaining away or
oversimplifying what the Bible reveals.
o The
more we try to analyse the Trinity to make the doctrine easily understood or
easily explained, then the more in danger we are of lessening it beneath what
the Bible reveals.
o Instead
of analysing, we need to have faith, trusting the truth of what God shows us of
himself in his written word.
o Daily trust God:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
o #2. Worship.
o That
we serve a God who is three in one and one in three; that we can relate to him
in prayer; that we can share the good news of Jesus, connecting others to the Father
in the power of the Spirit; and that this great and awesome God who is beyond
our understanding desires to be in intimate relationship with us and restore
the relationship that we have broken, all that must bring us to a place of
worship.
o Daily worship God:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
o #3. Obey.
o Jesus
said, “Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.”
(John 5:23, ESV)
o The
Bible equates honouring those in authority over us with obedience.
o God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are the ultimate authority in
the life of the Christian.
o Since
all three are God we need to obey each equally.
o Daily obey God:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
o Each
member of the Godhead is daily deserving of our faith and trust, prayer and
worship, service and obedience.
o Daily
trust, worship, and obey God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
