Sunday 06/12/22 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Why Christians Believe In The Holy Trinity”
Old Testament Scripture: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
New Testament
Scripture: Romans 5:1-5
Gospel Lesson: John 16:12-15
Since I was young, I remember seeing
people getting baptized in churches and in bodies of water, and I remember them
being baptized in the name of “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”. Sometimes
these folks were immersed in water and the pastor would say right before “I
baptize you in the name of “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”. This
also happened from baptismal fonts in churches, and etc.
Some pastors or priests also bless people during
worship or in prayer by saying in the name of “the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit”. Have you ever wondered why some many things are done in the name of “the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”? When many people get married, somewhere
in the marriage service is the term in the term of “the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit”.
How many people here have been in churches and or in
other places where you have heard the term in the name of “the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit”? The question that I want to us to consider this morning then,
on this “Trinity Sunday,” is why is the term “the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit” is said so much? “Trinity Sunday” is a special Sunday in the life of
many Christian Churches, because we celebrate and praise our God, who is three
in one, or one in three. We, as Christians, believe historically that we praise
and worship one God, who is in three persons.
This being said, how does the United
Methodist Church define the “Holy Trinity” on this Trinity Sunday. As a side
note, the word “Trinity” is not listed in the Bible, but the word was created
to attempt to encapsulate “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” or the
Godhead, or God three in one, one in three. According to our United Methodist
Church “Articles of Religion”, which is the church’s official doctrinal beliefs,
our first Article of Religion defines the Holy Trinity.
Let me read to you what this says,
once again from the United Methodist Church Book of Discipline:
“Article I — Of Faith in the Holy Trinity
There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost” (UMC BOD, pg. 104-105).
Historically speaking, the vast majority of Christians, of
all denominations, and all stripes, have and still do believe that God is a “Holy
Trinity”. This is why the United Methodist Church and many Christian
denominations celebrate “Trinity Sunday”.
The historical claim then is that God exists as one God with
three distinct persons. One God, who is revealed in the Father who creates, the
Son who saves, and the Holy Spirit that fills, guides, and sanctifies. So
emphatic are our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters and other denominations about
this that before a service begins and before it ends, the sign of the cross is
made and the priest says in the name of “the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”. This “crossing your heart” and saying in
the name of “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” is saying the three
persons of God and declaring the Holy Trinity.
Now, I have been a pastor for 10-years
now, and I do not ever think that I will ever be able to fully explain or
describe to you in a perfect way what the Holy Trinity is. I have heard
examples such as water can be liquid, ice, and steam. Three distinct forms, but
one person or essence. The Father creates, the Son saves, the Holy Spirit fills,
guides, and sanctifies. Yet, all of these examples cannot fully explain the Holy
Trinity.
Further, the reason that the majority of Christians have
baptized in the name of “the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit” for nearly two-thousand years is the “Great Commission”.
In looking at the gospel of Matthew 28:17-20, Jesus tells the disciples and us
this:
17 When
they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. 18 And Jesus came
and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I
have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt.
28:17-20, NRSV).
Jesus tells the disciples, and gives them
this “Great Commission” after he is resurrected, so that starting on the day of
Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian Church, that we celebrated last Sunday,
we know how we are supposed to baptize, and how we are to speak the full name
of God, who is three in one, one in three.
I also think of the Jesus getting baptize by his cousin John
the Baptist. In Matthew 3:16-17 it says of Jesus’ baptism:
16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:16-17, NRSV).
So,
in this scene of Jesus’ baptism, we have Jesus, God the Father speaking, and
the Holy Spirit descending like a dove. All three persons of God are all
present at once, showing us the power the Godhead. As we also say on Pentecost
Sunday, the disciples did not fully get it until the Holy Spirit showed up in
that Upper Room in Jerusalem. Therefore, we need all three persons of God, the
Father who creates, the Son who saves, and the Holy Spirit who fills and
sanctifies us. This friends, is why we celebrate “Trinity Sunday,” and why we believe
that God is a Trinity, one God in three distinct persons. It is never something
that we will fully comprehend, but Jesus told us that he is in the Father, and
the Father is in him.
In
fact, the Apostle Paul says of Jesus in Philippians 2:6-8:
6 who, though he existed
in the form of God, did not regard equality with God
as something to
be grasped, 7 but emptied
himself, taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness. And being found
in appearance as a human, 8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross (Ph. 2:6-8, NRSV).
So,
Paul says, and Jesus said, that he was God on earth. That Jesus was literally
fully God and fully human on earth. The religious leaders, in fact, literally
tore their robes open in offense that Jesus claimed to be God on earth, the Messiah,
the savior of the world. Jesus also said that we need the power of the Holy Spirit
to fill us, guide us, move in us, and sanctify us.
Do we worship three gods then? No, That Father
and Jesus are one, as Jesus said, and the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and
from Jesus. All one God, in three persons. Also, Jesus on earth had to be fully
God and fully human. Why is this? How can you die for the sins of the world if
you yourself have sin? No human could die on a cross for the sins of humanity,
past, present, and future, because no human is sinless. Given this, only God can
die for our sins, as Jesus was fully God and fully human on earth.
If
we do not believe in the “Holy Trinity” on this “Trinity Sunday”, then who is
Jesus Christ? If he was not fully God and full human, then who was he? If we were
only a man, a prophet, a good teacher, then he could not die for the sins of
the world. If this were true, then why did he die? Did he literally raise from
the dead as most Christians have believed historically? Did he ascend into
heaven, and is he going to return in glory one day? If the answer to all of
these questions is no, then what is Christianity? If there is no “Holy Trinity”,
then why did Jesus come to earth? What was his mission, and how is the church
supposed to live and operate in the world today?
Remember
also that in the Book of Exodus on that first Jewish Passover holiday, the Jews
sacrificed a pure white spotless lamb. They put the blood of the lamb over their
doorposts and lintels, so that death would “Passover” their firstborn child
that night. We then fast forward to the gospel of John chapter 1, where Jesus’
cousin, John the Baptist, who baptized him says this:
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (Jn. 1:29, NRSV).
To use Jewish religious language, John
the Baptist was saying of Jesus that he is like a pure spotless lamb sacrificed
on that first Passover. John the Baptist was saying that Jesus is the:
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (Jn. 1:29, NRSV).
So once again, only God can die for
the sins of the world, meaning that Jesus had to be pure, spotless, and sinless,
in order to die for the sins of the world. So, if Jesus was not God on the
flesh, and if Jesus did not die for the sins for the world, rise again, ascend
into heaven, and will return one day in glory, and if we do not believe in the “Holy
Trinity”, then we believe in a very different form of Christianity than historical
Christianity. I am not judging here, I am just making the distinction on this “Trinity
Sunday”, with historical Christianity and other iterations of Christianity.
So, I would argue as a historical
Christian and pastor, that we historically believe in the “Holy Trinity”. We believe
in the God who creates, as Proverbs 8:22 says:
22 “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago (Pro. 8:22, NRSV).
The
Book of Proverbs is saying that God created everything, and us. In our Book of Romans
reading for this morning, once again, we here about the second person of God, of
the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ our Lord. Starting in Romans 5:1 we hear of
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Starting in
5:1, once again, it says this:
5 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Rom. 5:1-5, NRSV).
The
Apostle Paul is telling us in the Book of Romans, that while God the Father
creator the universe and everything in it, that God’s Son Jesus Christ died for
our sins. By repenting of our sins and placing our trust in Jesus, as Savior
and Lord, we are justified. We have salvation, eternity, and we become a new
creation. We become a new creation more fully through the third person of God,
the Holy Spirit. To fully live the Christian life, to be saved, and to pursue
sanctification then, we need the fullness of God. The fullness of God is the
Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe therefore
that we need all three persons of God, to fully know God, to be redeemed through
Christ, and to be filled with the power and the love of Holy Spirit.
After
all, until the day of Pentecost last Sunday, the disciples did not yet fully
get it. They were not yet ready to go forth, preach the gospel, build the
church, make disciples, and baptize them in the name of “the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit”. This brings me to our gospel of John reading for this morning
once again. In looking at John 16:12-15 it says, once again:
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you (Jn. 16:12-15, NRSV).
Jesus is telling the disciples, that
they know God the Father, the creator, that they also now know him, Jesus, our Lord
and Savior, but soon the third person of God, the Holy Spirit will come and reveal
even more.
I believe friends, in this “Trinity
Sunday,” that our God is one God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. I believe that the second person of the Holy Trinity became human
in Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ taught us a radical new way of
living and loving. I believe that Jesus Christ died a Roman Cross for the sins
of the world, that he physically rose from the dead on Easter three days later.
I believe that this Jesus Christ appeared to his disciples and hundreds of
others after his resurrection. I believe that this Jesus Christ ascended into
heaven, and that he will return one day in glory. I also believe that the best
and only hope that the world has is Jesus and his gospel. So, friends, happy “Trinity
Sunday”. I bring you this message in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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