“The Trinity: So What?” (John 16:12-15) - Trinity Sunday -

 The Trinity?

 If you google the word “trinity,” you will easily find this image on the screen: One God in three Divine Persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct, but are one substance, essence or nature. This is a good diagram, but still it is mysterious and hard to grasp the meaning of the trinity. When you hear the following three words, “God is love,” how do you feel? We feel our hearts strangely warmed. But when we hear, “God is a Trinity,” No! It sounds like irrelevant dogma. But in fact, why is God love? Because God is a Trinity![1] How are we able to live the Christian life? Through the Trinity! The truth is that the doctrine of the trinity is the foundation for Christian faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses can believe in the sacrificial death of Christ. Mormons believe in Jesus’ resurrection. One of the Buddhist sects believes in salvation by grace. So what makes the Christian gospel Christian? The answer is our triune God. I am aware that today we celebrate Trinity Sunday and Family Worship. That means all our Sunday School children, including Lydia and Abe, are all here with us. I will use pictures and stories to explain our triune God and explore why it is essential for our Christian faith.

 The Father

The Father. God has many names. But among those names, God loves to be called the Father. A father is a person who gives life, who begets children. But for some of us, the word “father” is a bad thing. Some of us have negative experiences of overbearing, indifferent, or abusive fathers. But those dark images cannot cloud our heavenly Father’s loving, forgiving character. All human fathers are supposed to reflect him, not vice versa! I think the Father God is best described as a loving and forgiving father in the parable of the prodigal son. In this story the father shows his prodigal grace and love toward both the first son (the moralistic) and the second son (the irreligious). While the second prodigal son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him (Luke 15:20). When the first prodigal son heard that his father had a feast for his brother, he became very angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him, saying, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours” (31). The father loves both of them and gives a second chance to both of them. Our God is a prodigal Father.

The Son

But this is not the whole picture of the Father God. The best way to know God is to start with Jesus the Son, because the Bible says the Son is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb 1:3a, ESV). Jesus is the only way to know God truly and wholly (John 14:6). Pastor Josh McDowell’s father was a well known alcoholic and abusive father in his small town. Josh hated his father. He hated God the Father. He was an atheist and very skeptical about Christianity. When he was in college, he met a small group of people. He felt these people had something he didn’t have. So one day he asked one of them, “Why are you so different? What changed your life?” She said, “Jesus Christ.” Josh snapped, “Jesus Christ? I’m fed up with religion. I’m fed up with church. I’m fed up with the Bible.” She said, “I didn’t say religion. I said Jesus Christ.” Then he realized Christianity is not a religion. Religion is humans trying to work their way to God through good works. Christianity is God coming to men and women through Jesus Christ. Jesus is not just waiting for his prodigal children. He goes after them until he finds them. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd… and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15). Without exception – whether we admit it or not, we were lost. The people who were lost and found by Christ and now are following Him are called “Christians.”  When we experience this love personally, significant change happens in our lives. For me, since I encountered Jesus Christ, my restlessness was gone. My bad temper began to change. Christ’s love compels us. It transforms us. We experience God’s love the most through Jesus Christ the Son.

The Holy Spirit

But there is more! The Holy Spirit. Jesus accepts all of us just as we are, but then he makes us grow and be more like him! How? By sending us the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is not just a good spirit, but he is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus. He always glorifies Jesus (John 16:14). He is not a divine force, but a real person. The Bible says, the Holy Spirit speaks (Acts 13:2); he teaches (John 14:26). He can be resisted (Acts 7:51), grieved (Is 63:10; Eph 4:30) and blasphemed (Mt 12:31). In every way he is presented alongside the Father and the Son as a real person. He is our Counselor, Advocate, Helper, Encourager, and Companion (John 14:16). That’s why I chose this picture. John Wesley teaches that every believer should not only receive the Holy Spirit but also be filled with Him. He calls this second distinct experience as a “second blessing.” Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones shares this story to illustrate what this second encounter with the Spirit is like: “A man and his little child [are] walking down the road and they are walking hand in hand, and the child knows that he is a child of his father, and he knows that his father loves him, and he rejoices in that, and he is happy in it. There is no uncertainty about it at all, but suddenly the father, moved by some impulse, takes hold of the child and picks him up, fondles him in his arms, kisses him, embraces him, showers his love upon him, and then he puts him down again and they go on walking together.”[2] My prayer is all of us in this room may experience the showers of God’s love through intimate communion with the Holy Spirit.

 The Trinity: So What?

As I close, I would like to show you this last picture, “the Smiling Christ.” On the cross Jesus was stripped, head crowned with thorns, and nailed to the wood. But he endured all his temporary suffering because he loved his Father who would give him eternal glory, and because he did trust the Spirit who would draw all his children to himself. The more we know our triune God, the more we are drawn into fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As a natural outcome of this fellowship, we begin to love our God and our neighbor more and more. This sculpture is found in the chapel of St. Francis Xavier. I would like to read one of his poems, “My God, I Love Thee”:

My God, I love thee;

not because I hope for heaven thereby,
nor yet because who love thee not are lost eternally.

Thou, O my Jesus, thou didst me upon the cross embrace;
for me didst bear the nails and spear, and manifold disgrace;

And griefs and torments numberless,
and sweat of agony;
yea, death itself — and all for me who was thine enemy.

Then why, O blessèd Jesus Christ,
should I not love thee well?
Not for the sake of winning heaven,
nor of escaping hell;

So would I love thee, dearest Lord,
and in thy praise will sing;
solely because thou art my God,
and my most loving King.

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[1] Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith (InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, 2012), Kindle Location 47.

[2] Douglas Banister, The Word and Power Church: What Happens When a Church Seeks All God Has to Offer?(Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 1999), 49.