The Living God

Trinity Sunday invites us to wrestle with the deepest mystery of the Christian faith: one God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This sermon explores why the Trinity is not merely a doctrine to understand, but the living God who invites us into His eternal life of love and communion.

Transcript

The Gospel According to Matthew, chapter 28, you'll remember. And we haven't been in Matthew much because of Easter and coming out of that whole season, we were actually in the Gospel of John. But notice these words now that we return back to Year A's focus on the Gospel of Matthew, and we're going to find ourselves in Matthew 28. Once you found that that text, go ahead and stand with me for the reading of our gospel this morning.

Notice these words found in Matthew 28, verse 16.

The 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted, and Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy his consolations. Amen. You can be seated.

Well, welcome to Trinity Sunday. It's already been a very packed morning that is a little out of the ordinary and. And perhaps even, we might say, extraordinary, because we've added multiple layers to this Sunday, and that's been on purpose. In fact, it's kind of a going joke among preachers that Trinity Sunday is the preacher's nightmare, because it's almost like tiptoeing through a minefield of heresy. How many people before us have fallen into this or that kind of heresy or this or that ditch when it comes to trying to speak accurately and faithfully about the Holy Trinity.

But I actually love this Sunday. To me, this is the ground of our faith, as I have actually been mentioning the past few Sundays. In fact, I think our readings have been in John 14, preparing us for this sort of realization that our God, the one God, the one living and true God, is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And yet we meet on this sort of day, or if we're just off kind of by ourselves ruminating about this doctrine of the Holy Trinity, we. We think to ourselves, well, hold on.

And many people have objected in this sort of way. Hold on. If we're Talking about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, that term is not even used in the Bible. So why would we even wrestle with such a thing? Why would we labor over the words, for instance, as was just spoken in the Athanasian Creed, when the term Trinity is not even in the Bible?

The second one might sound something like this. And maybe you've had this thought before. Nothing in nature is exactly like the Holy Trinity. So that every time we try to maybe pluck a clover and say, well, the Trinity is like a clover where there's three leaves, three persons, but it's one clover, one God, trust me, there's issues with that. Or perhaps the egg as some people, or water in its three forms, none of these actually get us there.

They all fall short. And then maybe most bothersome of all to some of us, because we're sort of practical people, is that. I mean, what's the real practicality if we believe in a Holy Trinity or not? I mean, what is it going to do to affect my Monday, which is waiting for me tomorrow? What is it going to do to affect my life this week?

Well, I don't promise that I can address all the issues here, but I want to at least point. Okay. To perhaps some good solutions to our issues that arise when we begin to think about this doctrine of the Holy Trinity. And I'm going to give you the key at the beginning rather than at the end right now, and that's this. This is not just a doctrine to be understood.

This is the living God as revealed in his Word, his perfect without error word. That's the key. All right? So let's keep that in mind as we sort of move through here. Now, one of the.

One of the places we might start, okay? And there's. Trust me, there's a lot of places we could start. I mean, we could have just started right there at Genesis, where all of a sudden, in the beginning, God, right? There's God created the heavens and the earth, and then the Spirit, or as the text said, the wind of God.

That's spirit. Wind, breath, same word, ruach in Hebrew, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. Already in verse two of the Bible, we get a distinction within God himself, namely God and the Spirit of God. And then the distinctions just continue all throughout the Old Testament and get amplified and clearly seen in the language of Jesus. In particular this morning, where in the very great commission that we love and are under its obligation, what does Jesus say but this.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in what name? Just God. No, Jesus himself, who is God and man. One person, two natures. You remember, right?

We've talked about this before. We just said it and confessed it. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is as clear as you can get from the very mouth of the Son of God.

But where I want to start and all the places we could have started is in Exodus 3. Do you remember what happens in Exodus 3? Here's Moses in the wilderness, of all places. And he's been there for 40 years, roughly. You remember this?

His first 40 was in Egypt. His second 40 is in the wilderness. And then, as his time in the wilderness is coming to an end, he doesn't know that we know that. What happens? He looks and sees a burning bush.

And what happens when he approaches this? Take off your shoes. You're on holy ground. In other words, nothing should separate, not even the sole of a sandal should separate you from me. Right?

Now get low. You remember what low means? We talked about this last week. Remember? The Holy Spirit and water.

Right. If you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, then get low. Low means to worship, to understand fundamentally, you are not God. I am not God. He is God, and we come under his lordship.

Take off your shoes. But that's not all they get into the discussion. I'm not going to rehearse the whole discussion. But basically, Moses gets into an argument with God, and then he wants to know, by what authority am I going to go tell Pharaoh to let these people go? Mean, if I go up there and say, well, God said to let the people go.

Guess what Pharaoh's going to say. Which God? Remember, they're polytheistic. In Egypt, we know this. Moses knew this.

So he says, okay, well, which God are you then? Okay. And we already get in Genesis, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yes. But now God gives us something more in Moses, directly to Moses, the friend of God.

Do you remember the name that he gives himself? Who are you? He says, what? Yahweh? Something like that.

In Hebrew. You got to get it guttural. Yahweh, right? Something like that. It's called the tetragrammaton.

Y H, W, H. Four tetragrammaton letters. Okay, what is the word? Well, Yahweh okay? Or translated, I am. They say, well, you are what?

Right? Because anybody we've ever met, we say, well, who are you? It's like, well, I'm Marshall. That name was given to me by My parents. Well, who are your parents?

Okay, my parents. I was born here in Jackson and Mississippi and yada. I have to define myself by other things. I cannot simply say I am and that be the end of the story because, well, I didn't cause my own existence, did I? Nor did you.

We're created, so therefore we come from another and our entire life is lived toward another. It's the whole reason we're outward facing, right? That's why we got eyeballs, so we can see each other, a mouth so we can speak. It's part of what it means to be a person, by the way. And what do we have in the beginning?

We read the whole thing, so you ought to know. We have God doing what? Speaking. Because why? God is not just a thing.

God is not just impersonal being, but rather personal. In fact, three persons. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God. Here's what God says to Moses. I am who I am or I will be who I will be.

And it is a fundamental statement to say such a thing. Because if God defines himself by parentage like we would, or by a job, well, I am a carpenter, I am a creator. Then he defines himself by some other thing or in relation to something else. But God does not define Himself in relation to something else. God defines himself in relation to himself.

Everybody still with me, I am, period.

I am the one who am. Trust me. It gets wild, okay? Trying to translate that is tough. But all it's pointing to is that his existence does not depend on another, but all existence from him depends on Him.

So he's not defined in relation to us, okay? He's not defined in relation to anything he creates, but only to Himself. And this is why he is not one being among other beings like we are. You know, there's other humans and this sort of thing. There is no other God.

Now, some of you that like to like taxonomy and all this kind of stuff, like, this is why it's hard to define God. Because typically to define something you have to have a genus and a species, which is a difference, right? So you got to find its generality. Then you got to distinguish it from all other things. With species, it's a difference, right?

Well, that's the problem with God. There's nothing to compare him with. There's nothing to distinguish him by. He is fundamentally different than everything else in the created world because he is uncreated. As we just said.

Remember, the Father's uncreated. I know some of you are like, right, but that was why we said it three different times. Because the Son was not created, the Spirit not created, even though he is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father.

Well, you say. I'm a little lost. I get it. This is why St. Augustine, so long ago in the fifth century A.D. he said, you know, and by the way, did you notice how the Athanasian Creed began? If you don't believe this, you're not saved.

How did it end? If you don't believe this, you're not saved. Which is fundamentally true. This is what distinguishes Christianity from any of the other monotheistic faiths. Judaism, not monotheistic.

Islam, not monotheistic. Eastern religions, not monotheistic.

We're only left with one that is monotheistic as a Holy Trinity, and that's Christianity. It's the one thing that distinguishes our belief above all others. And because God is being itself, the source of all things, the fountainhead of all other existence and being. Okay, not trying to be fancy here, but this is literally when Paul says to the Araga, you remember this? In Greece, he said this to the in him, what we live and move and have our being.

Why? Because he is being itself again, the ground of all being or the source of all things. That's just another way to kind of say that right now when we're trying to understand this. Here's what St. Augustine says. He says, look, to deny the Holy Trinity, lose your soul.

It's that serious. That serious. That's why Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness falls short. It's that serious. But he says this, to understand the Holy Trinity is to lose your mind.

Do you feel that a little bit this morning? Yeah. You should. You should. How could a created thing ever contain its Creator?

Couldn't. We're always bumping into the contours of reality that we can't see beyond through reason. That's why we have His Word. Where reason ends, divine revelation begins. We could never reason to the fact that God is Father, Son and Spirit.

We could never reason there. We can reason to the fact that he is omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent perhaps, etc. Etc. But never that he is a Holy Trinity. Trinity in unity.

Unity in Trinity that cannot be found by reason. God has has to tell us Himself. And he begins with Moses by saying, I am the great. I am. That's who I am.

Now, I ran across a couple illustrations interestingly this week, which is kind of bizarre because I wasn't really looking for Them. But I really like what this one guy said. He said, when we're looking for God in His creation, it's like taking a flashlight noonday and pointing it into the sky and saying, where is God? Exactly.

Maybe this will help even better. It's as if Frodo in Lord of the Rings was looking for Tolkien, right? J, R R Tolkien. Would he ever find him in Middle Earth? You could look far and wide all across Middle Earth, from the kingdoms of men to the Orcs to the dwarves, deep down in the mountain.

Tolkien is not to be found at all in Middle Earth. And yet every page Tolkien is found.

Or maybe for some of you, Harry Potter looking for Rolling. He's never going to find her.

Us looking for God in creation and demanding these things like this, like, certainly look, because he's everywhere and yet very difficult to find and to understand.

The very mind we're trying to understand is given to us by God. The very light by which we understand is given by God. It would be like trying to convince, as the old saying goes, it'd be like trying to find a fish and convince the fish that they're in water. They don't know it. They don't know anything other than that.

So, too, God, in Him, we live and move and have our being. He's not far from each one of us. And yet it's hard to define. God is hard to define. And God is hard to explain, and rightfully so.

He's the creator. We're his creation. The creature can never again remember, contain his creator. So God is kind of off the map, or as we used to, like, off the charts. Right?

Our categories of everything that we know, nature does not. God does not fit in one of them. Not in one of them. And this is where we get into some more technical things. You say, I thought we were already getting technical.

We are, but into the way we even use language. So this may be helpful for some. It might not be helpful for anybody. If it's not helpful, just drop it. But there's three ways that we talk to each other about things or about reality, Right?

The first is univocally. It's a big word, I know, but it's this kind of thing. Marshall is a father, John is a father. It just means father. There is the exact same thing.

Unity, Right? Univocity. Okay, this is hard to say, but equivocity, which is just equivocal. We use terms equivocally sometimes, don't we? It means that they're similar, okay, in the sense that it's the same word but a different meaning.

So I say a bat flew through the cave and a bat hit the ball. That's the same word but two different meanings. That's equivocal language, right? Everybody with me still on univocal, equivocal. Then finally you get analogical language.

So if I were to say a person is healthy, a meal is healthy, and your complexion is healthy, that's not the same kind of health. It's this sort of thing, not exactly the same, but it's also not completely different. Is still is leading to the same idea of health, right? It's almost as if they share a common ground. Like the person's healthy and the food is healthy is a very different thing.

And yet there's enough common ground that it's analogical. It's an analogy, right? Now I won't get into difference in metaphor, but essentially analogy is this common ground that it's not exactly the same, but enough of the same for. For us to move forward with an idea. Now let me change that to God and to the way we.

If I say you're a wise person, like you really are wise, and I say God is wise, do you think that's univocal? No, of course not. Is it equivocal? No, because we're speaking of wise in the same way. But one is far greater than the other.

In fact, it's maximally greater. And that's God's wisdom, right? When I say, well, that was, you know, they're a good person, right? And I say that God is good, that is. That is light years apart, isn't it?

And yet there's common ground between goodness, between both there. In other words, there's a shared goodness that comes from God. There's a shared wisdom that comes to God, but it's in gradation or like shoot levels. It's way down. You follow me?

In other words, it's broken in us, it's fallen in us, can be repaired, but never God's wisdom, never God's love. I say I love Jessica and God loves Jessica. Again, light years away. Everybody with me still, if you're not. We're done with that part.

So you can say amen right now. Get this.

John does something that goes even further than what we find out with Moses. John says God is love, not God does love. As if it's just an act of God, just like God is just right. That's something in relation to us. There would be no need for justice between the Father, Son, And Holy Spirit.

Right. No need for justice. God is a creator. Okay, again, that doesn't affect God himself. And we're trying to talk about God himself on this Trinity Sunday.

So what does talk about God himself? God is love. Now you can't reverse that. Love is God. That's not.

No, not necessarily. God is love, though, fundamentally. But that means there's a lover, there's a beloved. Because love demands that, right? Otherwise it's just selfishness.

And that's not love. Remember, love is to will the good of another. It's a willful, willing action toward another. Not oneself, but another. How do we get that in God?

How could God be loved then? What's that common link, that common analogical language? Well, glad you asked. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. And the love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the relationship between Father and Son is not just metaphysical or out there, or a thing, or just a relation, but a person. And if we are to relate to God, it's always through the Holy Spirit. This is why Christ had to leave. He told us, I go so that I can send another paraclete or called out one or advocate. Who is that?

The Holy Spirit. So that when the Spirit is in us now we're between the love of the Father and the Son. We enter into the communion of eternity, of the eternal uncreated being. Who is God, Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit.

A lover, a beloved and the love shared. This is why. This is why. Okay, where's the text? This is why.

Oh yeah, here it is. This is why our text. Remember what Paul says. Finally. Brothers, farewell.

Some of you are like man. I'm ready for that part of the sermon, right?

Live in peace and the listen to this and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with the holy kiss. All the saints greets you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, that's the Son. The love of God, that's the Father and the communion.

The Holy Spirit be with all of you. Amen. You see what he did there? The Holy Spirit is the communion between the Father and the Son. He is that fundamental love relationship.

He is God as the other three two, Father and Son. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father. And the Holy Spirit is the eternal communion of divine love. So that when he comes into our life, his love is shed abroad. The Scripture says in our hearts, because he is love.

Alright, so we already know that the Holy Trinity created. Let us make man in our image. And how does John begin his gospel? In the beginning was the Logos, the Word, who is the Son of God? Remember?

So we. So remember we talked about speech, right? So you have a speaker. Who is the Father? He speaks the world into existence.

How? By His Divine Word. Let there be light. His Divine Word. But words are carried by breath.

Who is the breath of God? The Holy Spirit. Again, speaker, word, breath.

Holy. Holy, Holy. This is what Isaiah is going to say. It's what revelation shows us as well. This is known as the trisagion, right?

Like the holy, three. Holy. It's not by accident that the Scripture directs us. Holy, holy, holy. The Father sins, the Son, sent and becomes flesh, and the Spirit descends.

And by the way, this is all seen at his baptism, wasn't it? Now think about this real quick. In relation to the Great Commission. And again, baptism. So at Jesus baptism, what happens?

He is baptized, the Father speaks from heaven, and the Spirit descends to rest on him. And now when he gives us his Great Commission, he says, you now go and baptize. How? In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Not three names, but the name of God as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. It's in his name.

And then we come to this last thing. It's like, this is so impractical, Pastor. And you know what? I agree with you wholeheartedly. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the most impractical doctrine there is.

Why? We need to ask ourselves why? Because what it means for something to be practical is. It means, it's useful for something else, right? Like a hammer is practical.

Everybody with me, why? I mean, a hammer. And it's like, if you just say, I have a hammer, I'm really happy about life, you know? No, a hammer gets you somewhere else. Everybody with me, like, that's what it means for something to be practical.

It's like, give me something because I need to get somewhere else. Now think about money. We all think, oh, man, if I just had more money. But money is also very practical. Why?

Because it gets you somewhere else. Just having a bunch of money that doesn't do anything. Spending it, well, that does some things, right? It's practical. But God, God is like the most impractical being, because God is not a means to an end.

We don't follow God so we can get to something else. If you're following God so you can be happy, you've missed the whole boat. God is our eternal happiness and beatitude.

No he's gloriously impractical because everything else leads to him. Here's the way the Bible says it plainly. He is the beginning and the what? End. He is the end of all things.

So when we're speaking about God, when we're aimed at God, we're aimed at the very end, but also the source of all things. He is the alpha and the Omega.

In other words, things like happiness, that's an end. You know, I say to you, I did this last night. I actually practiced this last night on my kids. And I would love to do it right now, but it would be kind of weird for one of you, maybe just pick one of you, but to do this. But basically, if I said, why did you come to church?

You're like, I think it's the right thing to do. You know? Okay, why do you think it's the right thing to do? Well, here's where you're gonna end. I think it makes my life happier.

Now, when you get to happiness, no one asks you like, well, why are you want to be happy? That's ridiculous. Now why do you want a hammer? Why do you want a car? Why do you want a house?

All those things are means to ends of what? Happiness. But happiness, nobody say, hang on, why do you want to be happy? That's absurd. We all want happiness.

We all seek happiness. And guess where happiness is for found the term for happiness in the Bible, by the way. In the New Testament Beatitude, the happy life is found in the Beatitudes, in the Beatitude himself, Jesus Christ. In other words, God is not a means to an end. Please don't do that with God.

Oh God, help me out of this situation. Like that's a means to an end. No, no. We worship God because he's God, because he's the great I am. And if we do it for any other reason, then we're trying to treat God like any other common thing.

Imagine if I treated my wife like that, treated my son like that. No, I love my son because he's my son. And even if he isn't useful or practical to me, which sometimes I question that I still love him. If he loses all his powers, but has his life, I will love him. I will love her.

We just celebrated 22 years. I don't care what happens to her. As long as she's breathing, she's mine to love.

Why? Because Jessica is not a means to an end. No. When you get to persons their full stop ends in themselves, but ends that are pointed toward God who gave her life. They're not complete.

We're never complete in ourself. We're like microcosms of what we should be aimed at. When we think about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. An eternal communion of love. That's what you're invited into.

You're not. Just salvation is not just getting your sins, forgiving, forgiven, and then going out and sinning more and coming back. If you think that's what this is about, oh brother or sister, there's so much more. No, no, no. This is about encountering the living God.

And you can do that today. You say how? The same way we were created. By speaking it. Speak his holy name today.

Maybe you've never really done that in your heart of hearts. Jesus, I need your help. If you really say his name, he is not far from each one of us.

Yes, today is the day of salvation. The God that Moses encountered, the God that Isaiah encountered, the God that the disciples encountered, we can encounter today. And we must. And we must. So you see, this doctrine is not really about a doctrine at all.

It's about the one and true and only living go God. And he must be worshiped and not just understood. I wonder if we could fall down in our own hearts this morning, in our own soul, and worship him as God. May it be so. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.