Explaining the Trinity

well this is the Hardcore isn't it this is the remnant and you've got to be really to stick around for something you're told it's a lecture on the Trinity I mean really and you stayed I'm amazed because I think the thing is most Christians they think there's the God that we know and love we love this God but the Trinity Trinity something really to be done in seminary you know the ivy-covered seminary and we'll leave Trinity for those pasty-faced and socially disastrous theologians and they can deal with Trinity because it's they enjoy talking about things like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and how can three be one and all that sort of stuff but it's not relevant to real life right and I think I think deep in the Christian psyche today is the ideal Trinity is this awkward irrelevance this what on our knowledge of God and that tells when you see Christians doing their evangelism because when you see Christians doing evangelism what is it you expect them to say if I here Christian telling the gospel I expect them to talk about the cross good I expect them to talk about grace good talk about forgiveness good but one thing I really don't expect them to talk about is which God they're talking about right I don't expect them to mention Trinity in fact I quite expect them to really back off from talking about the Trinity because they're a bit scared they may get in a tangle and they're not quite on confident ground and so what's happening in the church today is we're waxing lyrical about the beauty of the gospel but not so much about the beauty of the God whose gospel it is I think this morning if there's one thing I wanna say it's that it's time for us to stand up and be proud of who our God is not to be shy to be clear that our beautiful gospel could never come from any lesser God and that is the triune God and you know when for example David says Psalm 27 one thing I've asked the Lord that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord so David's thinking it's not that I'm in danger if I press in to try to know God too much I might come across something boring or odd or distasteful that's not gonna happen he's confident that you can keep pressing into who God is and he becomes ever more lovely you're not gonna stumble across something and think oh so you're not gonna stumble across Trinity and think oh it's if you get it it's going to be beautiful and that's what we're going to look at now so where should we start now where do we start with Trinity I think this is where so many go wrong and you've probably seen this in a home Bible study group and the young new Christian says to the Bible study group leader could you just tell me about this Trinity thing and you know what the reaction is right the Bible study group leader rolls their eyes heavenward and says are the mystery we go that was helpful thank you and then someone says do you know I've heard this really helpful illustration it's that God is like a shamrock leaf he's like one leaf but with three bits and I find that really helpful and someone else then says no no gods like h2o that he's bit cold but then you warm him up and he becomes water but it's still h2o and then you warm him up more and it becomes really spiritual and gasps it's all h2o but there's sort of three different ways in which he can be goddess and someone else said no no I like to think of God as an egg you've got the yolk you've got the white and you've got the shell but it's all one egg do you think seriously people are going to bow down in wonder of the egg ashiness of God and you think no wonder Christians think this is just weird this is just not relevant to everyday life but Christians believe in the Trinity not because they see think there's some similarity between God and three headed Giants or streaky bacon they believe in the Trinity because of Jesus Christ in John 20 verse 31 he can turn to it if he want John 20 verse 31 is really John's mission statement why he wrote his gospel and in John 20 verse 31 he issues a call to faith in Jesus and he says this he says I've written these things I've written this gospel so that you may believe that listen Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name now do you hear what he's just done there it's a simple call to faith in Jesus but that call to faith in Jesus is a call to a faith in a triune God he spot it Jesus is the Son of God God is this far but he's clearly God Himself here's the Lord my lord my god says Thomas but God is his father and he's the Christ which means or Messiah and Hebrew means he's the one anointed the one in knighted with a spirit you see when when you start with the Jesus of the Bible it's a triune God that you get looking at the Trinity is is not going off into some little irrelevance it's pressing in to know who Jesus is or just think about it this way have you ever asked the question what was God doing before he created the world everyone does that one in fact theologians have come up with a nice answer to this one what was God doing well the more pompous ones anyway I've come up with a nice answer to this one what was God doing before he created the world he was inventing hell for those cheeky enough to ask such questions a few ladies liked doing that sort of thing but in fact we're told exactly what God was doing before creation John 17 verse 24 given a window straight in John 17 24 Jesus says father you loved me before the creation of the world that's what God was doing for eternity God was a father loving his son in the power of the Spirit that's the God we're talking about now what is it to be a father a father is a name filled with meaning a father is one who gives life who loves who begins and if then God was eternally afar eternally he's loving eternally his life-giving outgoing and so would you come with me to first John for first John four and let's read a couple of famous verses first John four from verse seven beloved let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God that's just of this anyone who does not love does not know God for god is love credibly powerful verse do you know a mature older Christian who may be going to go and have lunch with them today I hope you are and they're so lovely they've walked with the Lord for years and they're so lovely that you find when you're with them you're just nicer right you behave more nicely around them and it's not like you're faking it but genuinely you find they're just so kind and they're they're not saying bad words behind people's backs and they're just so generous and lovely and you find yourself starting to be nicer in their presence you change when you walk away but just being with them makes you nicer it's a small little image of what God is like you cannot know this God his love in such a profound and potent way that to even slightly know him you must start loving for he is love but who precisely is John talking about here verse nine and this the love of God was made manifest among us God sent His only Son so he's talking about God the Father here when he sends his son you see this God would not be who he was if he did not love if at any time the father didn't have a son who he loved he simply wouldn't be a father so father means to love it means to give out life to beget the son and so you begin saying why the Trinity is such good news God is love because God is Trinity you get a picture of this in the baptism of Jesus and this is something where particularly parents with young kids if you try to teach your children here's the illustration to use not eggs and shamrock leaves here's the illustration to use the baptism of Jesus seen the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan what do we see the father declares his love for his son this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased and what have I missed out the Spirit was hovering on him resting on him for it is the spirit who makes the love of the father known to the son that's the God we're talking about a father loving his son as he pours out the Spirit of his blessing on him and that love that the father pours out on the Sun causes the Sun to respond with a an echoing love so there's this lovely moment in Luke 10 where we read Jesus full of joy in the holy spirit cried I praise You Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because the Father's love caused him to echo love back I hope you get to see it it means when you start with Jesus the triune God that he makes known isn't a weird philosophical headache here is a God who is love the father loving giving life to his son in the fellowship of the Spirit and all this means the triune God is utterly different to all other gods we see let's think of it this way imagine imagine a single person god okay so before he creates single person God sitting on his throne what's he like what's his character like single person God before he's created what's he like you could say well how do I know how possibly could I know what he's like but there is one thing you do know anyone got it what's what's he like the single person God he's alone he's lonely there for love for others cannot be his heartbeat right because he's never loved anything in eternity so a single person God you cannot say this God is love you could say he starts behaving in a loving way but you cannot say if that God he is love because for eternity he wasn't only of the triune God can you say this God is love and it's interesting then to see all the gods of human religion are needy you asked why did these gods create for instance why do these gods create well we're told for example in some of the earliest creation myths from Babylon the god Marduk for instance says he wants to create humanity so that you might have slaves right why do you create so I can get workforce so all the gods of these single gods of human religion they create because either they want slaves or they want friends so they may come across as very powerful but actually they're needy they need us right because they're eternally lonely and so the glory of such gods is like a black hole whereas the triune God doesn't need us and by the way that is great good news that could immediately strike us go uh-huh I sort of wanted God to need me but it's great that he doesn't need us because it means he relates to you by pure grace not because he needs you not because he's leaning on you desperately wanting you to be his friend his pure grace pure cleanness the father has never been lonely fraternity he's been satisfied in knowing his son and so his glory as we saw this morning it's like radiant light ever shining out because he's so full you're not empty trying to take he's so full giving I wonder if you've read them CS Lewis the Screwtape Letters the Screwtape Letters if you not even read them they're great you'll love them and I'm not just saying that because Lewis from Oxford but if you're not going to read them you can't get an audiobook of them which which can be great to hear the Screwtape Letters are supposedly the letters from a senior devil to a junior devil giving good devilish advice on how to tempt well and Lewis captures the difference between the devil who is the definitive needy solitary God and the Living God of overflowing love so here's what the senior demon writes to the junior demon ready Screwtape writes one must face the fact that all God's talk about his love for men his service being perfect freedom is not as we Devils would gladly believe mere propaganda it is an appalling truth God really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of creatures whose life on its miniature scale will be qualitatively like his own not because he's absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to his we demons want cattle who can finally become food he wants servants who can finally become children we want to suck in God wants to give out we demons are empty and would be filled he is full and flows over see the difference let me show you a direct contrast so it can bring this out I want to shave difference between a triune God and the best-known single person God on the planet Allah and so you can see the difference because of John Calvin once said that the difference between the Living God and all other gods is the fact that he's trying only to see that difference now so I hope this is okay this probably hasn't been done here in this building for a while I'm going to read some of the Quran to you I'm gonna read you two verses from the Quran and I'm going to apologize for this because some of this to a Christian would be is quite offensive say not Trinity desist it will be better for you for God is one God and here's the bit that is uncomfortable to read glory be to him far exalted is he above having a son next verse say he Allah is one Allah is he on whom all depend he baguettes not nor is He begotten and none is like him did you hear that keyline he baguettes not yugi he's not a father nor is He begotten he's not a son I was making as clear as he possibly can in the Koran I am NOT the God of the Bible I'm not the father son Holy Spirit now so okay he our is one person not three but that difference means he has an in totally different character and motivation and I want to think about it this way I've prompted to you prime do you on this already she should know what is our like before creation he's alone and so love for others is not his heartbeat right and actually there's a tension here at this point in us Islam because Allah is said to have 99 names which describe him as he is in himself in eternity one of those names could be translated the loving but you think well how could he be loving if he's on his own fraternity with nothing to love and there are two main answers that theologians have tried to give to this one one is that well he eternally loves his Quran which is an eternal word in heaven you think that's not really deserve visit it's more like a hobby if it's loving an object right there's an interest it's not a relationship the other option is this is the more popular option Allah eternally looks forward to his creation before he creates he looks forward to it and he loves his creation in advance that sounds a good answer doesn't it actually it's hugely problematic the cause if that's why I was called the loving our needs creation to be who is the loving oops I'm one of the cardinal tenets of Islam is that a la défense or nothing it's just one of the points where Islam as any nontrinitarian system must be is internally incoherent it can't work unless it's Trinitarian it won't work but here's what I want to draw out the implications for the character of Allah are disturbing because he's not essentially loving because he's not essentially loving Allah is the source of evil just as much in the same way as he's the source of good and so while some of his better known names are the compassionate the merciful he has other names the proud the deceiver in fact the best of deceivers he's called he said to deceive and pervert the will of men about 20 times in the Quran and what do you think faith in such a God looks like it's going to look scared unsure right and so let me tell you a story about Muhammad's successor the enormous least significant caliph Abu Bakr now Muhammad when he was still alive he assured abu bakr of a place in paradise you think nice that's so that's like the islamic equivalent to philippians 4 Dhruva philippians 4 paul writes about clement and those other workers whose names are written in the book of life and you think clemens not going to struggle with assurance is he where are you going clement when he died Philippians 4 read it they say clement could be very assured abu bakr was asked what about this promise from mohammed that you would be in paradise and abu bakr responded by allah i would not feel safe from the deceptions of allah even if i had one foot in paradise let me stress I am NOT meaning in the slightest to be rude or derogatory I'm quoting the words of the first caliph office of Islam he realized Allah cannot be trusted because he's not loving essentially but how different it is with a triune God because and only because eternally the father's loving the son in the Fellowship of the Spirit only because God is like that can we say God is love therefore he speaks the truth therefore we can trust him therefore when he makes great promises we can rely on them and I think there's a great challenge for us there that we must be resolutely Trinitarian and I wonder it show very briefly what that does to the gospel I once a few years ago made a great mistake in I was about to try to edit a book comparing Christianity and Islam on different things and it was a disaster and didn't work so I never did it but I wanted to compare salvation in its this is one of the reasons why it didn't work I wanted to compare salvation in Islam and Christianity so I spoke to an Islamic scholar who would be the guy who'd be writing it and he said problem is that isn't a word for salvation in Islam the closest he could think of was success isn't that revealing the triune God ever-loving full of grace offers salvation for free Allah requires success see the difference but friends there would be no salvation if God were not triune let me just give you one example of why that is the cross without the Trinity the cross does not work why well if the father did not have a son to send to be our substitute well if our sins are to be paid for we have to have a perfect man died in our place but if God did not provide him we have to provide the perfect man right and if we have to provide the perfect man God's not being gracious at all he's done not done anything and also it's not possible because we can't provide a perfect man see it's only because the father has a son descend to die in our place that God can do all of salvation himself and accomplish it so there's nothing for us to do but actually there's far more than this the Trinity the Trinity helps us to see the full sweetness of the gospel before I show you how let me I'm gonna tell you a gospel and have a think what you make of this one so this is I'm going to tell you a gospel alright and phrasing it carefully God is like a heavenly school principal and we've all been caught being naughty in the classroom so we've broken the rules so we're due to be punished by the headmaster by the school principal but along comes a nice classmate called Jesus and he takes the punishment for us so we can go off and have a clean school record does that sound familiar as a sort of gospel explanation it should sound sort of familiar because there's a lot there that's tracing the lines of the gospel but I never talked about the Trinity there tonight and did you notice all my explanation of the gospel flowed out of how I defined God said God is like a school principal everything flowed out of that who you think God is is going to shape the gospel entirely so my question is what if saying before God ever ruled before he ever ruled over creation what was he like eternally what if before all things God was a father loving his son what would the gospel look like then because who God is shapes the salvation he has to offer come with me to Romans 8 to see this Romans 8 if you can if you have the text available and I want you to see how Trinitarian this is um I'm gonna just dive in at Romans 8 verse 14 now I've got the ESV here some translations the word children is used here but literally it does say sons and I want the ladies to be listening especially attentively here because this is outrageous ready Romans 8 verse 14 all ladies all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God oh come on it's so my soul Jenna stick is known it's it's how it sounds to us but well elsewhere in Scripture we do see the more generic term children of God Paul is deliberately saying that all who are led by the Spirit of God men and women are sons of God because he wants us to be clear that the status we're all given is quite specifically the status of the son himself that's what we're given in the gospel more than forgiving were adopted as Suns in the Sun now ladies men have to make peace with being part of the Bride of Christ so we've all got issues here as a men a part of the Bride of Christ and the women get to enjoy the status of the Sun and the reason that's important is because it's so easy for us to think well God the Father loves his son of course he does and then there are the children of God who he's not so keen on right and so Paul wants us to be absolutely clear no no no no all believers men and women mature and immature are given the status of the beloved son himself so much so in fact that do you see verse 15 he goes on for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father do you notice how strange again that was so he was outrageous in verse 14 and verse 15 in the middle of this complete letter that's written in Greek he inserts this one word in Aramaic ABBA it's a really odd thing to do why is the Aramaic word because he's talking back to mark 14 where his the important point in private Jesus speaks to his father and says Abba Father that is in private what he calls him and Paul is saying the spirit of adoption or the spirit of sonship the spirit of the son he's called in Galatians 4:4 is given to us so that we might share the language that the son shares with his father we're given precisely nothing less than what the son himself has now that is a transforming gospel but you only get that with the triune God you only get that now if God was not a father he couldn't give us the right to be his children if he didn't enjoy eternal fellowship with his son if his son was just a created being who never had warm clothes eternal fellowship with his father you have to wonder does God know what fellowship is does he have fellowship to share with us if the son was a creature what sort of relationship could he share with us if God was a single person if God has no son salvation would look entirely different if God was a single person school principal possibly he might offer salvation where we could live under his rules under his protection he might even offer forgiveness but he couldn't offer closeness only the triune God can do that bringing us into the life of the father and the son and if God was just a single person not eternally love not knowing eternally what fellowship is not having love as his heartbeat you could never hear those golden words of John 17 23 jesus said father you loved them even as you love me with no other religion do you get that father you've loved them even as you've loved me with this God we can say with all sincerity our Father because of Jesus and it means a Salvation that is by grace from first to last you see I think we often talk about our problem being this that God's standards are high and our standards aren't high enough and that's true but you know what we like we tend to go with God's standards are high maybe I'll just try a bit harder but if salvation is adoption trying harder is just simply a wrong category it's a category mistake because you can't buy your way into a family right you can't buy your way in salvation is adoption and there's no way you can earn it it has to be free it has to be a gift and it's interesting as you look at the difference between the triune God and all other religions only the triune God offers salvation perfectly for free it makes sense doesn't it because he's eternally loving inclined to be merciful and because salvation is adoption it's a free thing is about love it's not about business whereas with other God's not eternally loving salvation if you can talk about salvation is more about business it's a contract you've got to do your part now with this God God's blessing is sonship an effort can have nothing to do with it your efforts can make you a slave but no amount of effort can make you a son now that is right at the heart of the Christian battle getting that salvation is completely free so how does the Trinity shape the gospel the Trinity makes the gospel the Trinity makes salvation possible and makes salvation sweet and just briefly on the nature of this salvation what is it that we're brought in to enjoy as children of God well the Sun has eternally been loved by the father father John 17:20 for you loved me before the foundation of the world that's what it's like to be the son an eternally he's echoed love back to the father that friends is the life were brought into it's totally different to what any other God offers other gods say for example Allah be my slave be my good slave this God what he offers is come come be my children my sons in the Sun and share my life share my eternal pleasure and his life is all about the father loving the Sun and the Sun loving the father in the sweet fellowship of a spirit and it means friends if you would be godly you must love Jesus because that's what the father's like you'll never be more godly than when you love Jesus because that's what God is like and you'll never be more christ-like than when you love the father for that's what he's like nothing makes us more like God than our love for the son and for the father as the spirit enables us this Trinity makes the difference in everything not a philosophical headache but a God who makes a beautiful salvation and makes a life where the possibility of harmony and beauty is held out would you turn with me to Ephesians I'm just gonna read a little bit on this Ephesians 2 I mean talking so far about how God reconciles him to himself that reconciles us to himself but Ephesians 2 let's let's dive into verse 14 for he himself is our peace who's made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of Commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two so making peace I might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross now so what he's getting out there is that the father sends the son not only to reconcile us to himself but also to reconcile us to each other because this God is eternally a harmony father loving son son loving the father in the fellowship of the Spirit and so he creates a world where harmony reflects who he is and contrast this for example with the March of Islam around the Mediterranean in its first couple of hundred years or so what happens is the once diverse cultures from Persia to Morocco become uniform so could you tell the difference between a Libyan culture and Iranian culture it's hard to now because the cultures have been become monochrome because for other single person sameness is good for the triune God harmony is good different persons working together in harmony is good as so friends the Trinity is the hope for world peace only with the Trinity do you have the logic for bringing together what we see in Ephesians two Jew and Gentile men and women black and white coming together in one family all together crying salvation belongs to our God Abba Father only the Trinity provides a logic for that world harmony a beautiful God a great salvation and the hope for world peace

Channel: The Moody Church

Views: 10,167

Rating: 4.8378377 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Chicago, Church, Sermon, Trinity, Explaining the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, Holy Spirit, Michael Reeves, why does love exist, what is love

Id: FtJ4_oY8J-s

Length: 40min 28sec (2428 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2019