The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
John 3:1-17 “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Him by night, and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ 3 Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ 4 Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?’ 5 Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” 8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ 9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, ‘How can these things be?’ 10 Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and you do not receive our witness. 12 If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.’” (NASB)
For all the advances in our understanding of nature and natural sciences, there is still a lot of unexplained phenomena in nature. For example, there’s something called Quantum Superposition. Scientists at Stanford University have discovered that one atom can be found simultaneously in two different places, even connected miles apart! Albert Einstein called this “spooky action.” Quantum Superposition is clearly the exemption to the rule that something can only be in only one place at the same time.
There are also some atoms that can be moving and not moving at the same time. Sounds impossible. If something travels at 95% of the speed of light time will slow down for the traveling thing by about one-third.
The natural world is filled with mysteries. A mystery is something not understood or beyond understanding.
If there is a lot in this world that is beyond our understanding, does it not also follow that the Creator of all things understood and mystifying would be even more incomprehensible? Why do so many people think of God as a rather simple and shallow being? If atoms and time can challenge or transcend our understanding, then why do so many people find it so difficult to come terms with the fact God is beyond our sinful and limited comprehension.
The Lord God had to remind Isaiah and the Hebrews of this fact and did so in Isaiah 55:-8-9. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” This is why it is so important to limit what we know, what we confess, and what we think about God to what God has revealed to us about Himself in the pages of the Old and New Testaments. The Bible is, at it’s essence God’s self revelation. In the written Word of God, God reveals, discloses Himself as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is what the Festival of the Holy Trinity celebrates. It celebrates and memorializes who God has revealed Himself to be. We call God Father, because that is who God has revealed Himself to be. We call God the Son, because that is who God has revealed Himself to be. We call God the Holy Spirit, because that is who God has revealed Himself to be. We call God the Son.
As I have said in many Trinity Sunday sermons each and every word, phrase, and sentence in the Creeds, especially in the Athanasian Creed has been written with precision to say what the Scripture gives us to say about who God has revealed Himself to be and what He has done for us and for our salvation.
The Bible’s teaching that God is a Trinity begins by realizing that there is but one God, One Being, One Essence. “Hear, Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” (Deut. 6:4) Yet God reveals that, beyond our comprehension there are three distinct persons in the Godhead, each person different from the other two, yet each fully God. You will not find the word trinity in the Bible. Some make a big deal of that. Nonetheless, from the beginning to the end of Holy Scripture you will find the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
Thus we can say of the Father, “There is no other God.” We can say of the Son of God (as Luther does in his hymn, “A Mighty Fortress”), “There is no other God.” And we can say of the Holy Spirit, “There is no other God.” Still, there is only one God, One Being, One Essence. To drive this point home and in opposition to false doctrines concerning the Trinity, the Athanasian Creed piles up the adjectives in regard to God. Equal in glory, Coequal in majesty, the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated; not three eternals, but one eternal.
Admittedly, that sounds all quite theoretical and abstract, like something in theoretical physics. Like Quantum Superposition nearly impossible to get our minds around. The doctrine of the Trinity is hard to grasp, but it is not all we are left with, namely love. God’s love for the world is rooted in the essence of God and each of the persons of the Godhead. It is the love of God that takes the theoretical, the mystifying, and the abstract and makes it real; and makes it flesh and blood.
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity isn’t some lifeless academic discussion. It is the love of God rescuing His doomed creation. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.” One pastor has titled his Trinity sermon “Trinitarian Christocentric,”’ that is a Holy Trinity and is centered on the Second Person of the Holy Trinity – Christ centered.
It is the nature of love to give and to do for the object that is loved. The lover or doer is the subject and the one who is loved is the object. Each Person of the Trinity loves and this love, like all love is expressed by giving something of value to the one who is loved.
The greatest demonstration of love is to give one’s own life. “Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) There’s this too. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and mind, and soul.” (Mark 12:30)
One might well argue that a greater display of love, greater than giving one’s own life is to give one’s child for the sake of another. Abraham’s love for the Lord God was put to the test when he was instructed to sacrifice his only son of the promise, Isaac out of love for God.
Abraham loved God in this way; he was willing to give his only son, Isaac (Gen 22:1–19). God the Father demonstrates His love for the world by giving His one and only Son to die for the sins of the world. In John 3:16 we read that God “so” loved the world. The Greek word for “so” does not mean “so much.” The Greek word “outos” is not a word of embellishment. It is not that God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son. Rather, the Greek word denotes how the love of God was manifested. The word means “in this way.” Thus John 3:16 is translated more accurately. “God loved the world in this way, that He gave His one and only Son…”
In this one statement Jesus includes two Persons of the Godhead in the work of salvation. It is not a coincidence that John 3:16-17 are prefaced by a lengthy explanation of the work of the Holy Spirit. The whole conversation began with Jesus explaining to Nicodemus that a person must be born again, born from above of the water and the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
See, Trinity Sunday is “Trinitarian Christocentric.” The Father loved the world in this way. He sent His only begotten Son to die for the world. The Holy Spirit joins Himself to the preached Word and the Word of made flesh, Jesus Christ to create faith and baptize a person into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to enter into the kingdom of God.
Trinity Sunday is about Jesus to the point that it excludes everything and everyone else, except what God did in Christ for us. The Father sends the Son to the cross and forsakes the Son for our sake. Jesus said, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it back.” (John 10:17)
The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes us holy in God the Son for Christ’s sake. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:3)
The Son says of Himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
There has always been the Trinity. The plan of this Triune God—from before the foundation of the world —was to send the Only-Begotten Son to die for the sins of the world; that is, to make full and complete payment with His own blood for the sins of each and every person for all time.
Folks, to praise, pray to, or worship a god that consists of just one person, as the Jews and Muslims is not to worship the true God who revealed Himself to be Three in One and One in three, a Godhead of the same substance, equal in glory, coequal in majesty; the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated; one eternal is to engage in an act of idolatry. Jesus Himself makes this clear to the Jews in His day. Jesus Himself tells the Jews that they aren’t worshiping the one true God. “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I know him.” (John 8:54-55)
The Athanasian Creed clearly confesses this in the opening paragraph. “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic/universal faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally.” Having made it clear that disbelief in any of the assertions that follow means eternal death. “This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.”
Nothing has changed in this regard. God continues to love the world in this way. The Father established the Word and Sacraments so that we would be made His children in Christ. “For you are all sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27)
God still loves the world in this way, He send the Holy Spirit, the Helper. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.” (John 14:26)
God continues to love the world in this way, He continues to send His word “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” (Rom 10:17).
God the Father continues to love the world in this way, The Father has given all judgment to His Son ; “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. 22 For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.” (John 5:21–22).
God continues to love the world, the Son of God will return to this world and speak the dead to life: “For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this; for a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come out…” (John 5:26–29).
To us the incomprehensible has been revealed in our heavenly Father, in our brother Jesus Christ, and in our Helper and Comforter the Holy Spirit and we will know our God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—into eternity.
AMEN
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen