Trinity Sunday     John 16:12-15  Eight passages on the Holy Spirit

Today is Trinity Sunday in the life of the Church and therefore I am going to preach a sermon on the doctrine of the Trinity. I don’t preach a doctrinal sermon that often. For you who are “first time visitors,” I want you to know that this is not a “normal” Sunday morning sermon. Rather, today’s sermon is a doctrinal sermon about the Trinity.

In the life of the Church, we have special Sundays. These special Sundays are intended to remember specific historic events in the life of Christ. Such as Easter Sunday which remembers the resurrection of Jesus. Such as Pentecost Sunday which remembers when the Holy Spirit came and lived witin the first Christians. But today is the only Sunday in the year which is dedicated to a doctrine, the doctrine of the Trinity.

By Trinity, we mean to say that God is three in one. That is, there is 1) God the Father, 2) God the Son and 3) God the Holy Spirit. God is fully God when God created and still creates the universe. God is fully God when God lived and still lives in the presence of Jesus. God is fully God when God lived and still lives in the presence of the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts today. These are not three gods but one God who has three different persona or three different dimensions or three different qualities. That is what the sermon for today is about. The sermon for today is about the Trinity.

The Trinity is a very important doctrine. That is, all traditional worship services in all mainline denominations begin with the Trinitarian formula. The worship services begin with these sacred words: “Let us begin this service in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.” As those words are spoken, the priest or pastor makes the sign of the cross. Similarly, all worship services in the mainline denominations conclude with the same ancient formula, “In the name of the Father and on the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” For twenty centuries, worship services have begun and ended in the name of the Triune God.

Also, life itself also begins and ends with those sacred words of the Trinitarian formula, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is, at baptism of infants. People come up to the altar and the new baby is baptized with the sacred words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” And at the end of life when you die and they put your casket into the ground or your ashes into a vault, those sacred words are spoken again. “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes and dust to dust, in sure and certain hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.” The sign of the cross is made as the sacred words are said. In other words, life begins with baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and ends at your grave in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These words are bookends for the beginning and ending of our lives here on earth.

The doctrine of the Trinity is also written into the constitution of Grace Lutheran Church. If you examine the constitution of this congregation, Article 1, you will read the words, “We believe in the Triune God.” The Trinitarian formula is also written into the Augsburg Confession, a foundational document of the Lutheran Church. What is Article 1 in the Augsburg Confession? Not article two, ten or twenty. What is the first article in the Augsburg Confession? “We believe in the Triune God.” We believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. That God is fully Father, that God is fully Son, that God is fully Spirit.

We are a Trinitarian Church and that is what I would like to talk about today. The Trinity is one of the most important doctrines of the Church.

Now, there are a lot of people today who don’t have much time for doctrine. Such people are often into spirituality. They like phrases  such as  “I am a spiritual person. I have a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe in Jesus and that is enough for me. I don’t need doctrines.”

Such attitudes of spirituality without doctrine are not wise. For example, every car has a chassis. What is a car without a chassis? You have to have a chassis to on which to put the fenders, the engine and wheels. You need to have something which holds the whole car together and that is the chassis.

Or, what is my body without a skeleton? Without a skeleton, the knees would be flopping around along with the legs and arms. You need to have a skeleton within the human body for that human body to stand up on its own two feet and legs.

Or, what is a fish without a backbone? We all know what it is. It is a jellyfish. A jellyfish has no backbone. That is what a lot of Christians are: they are spiritual jellyfish. They are “a blob of spirituality, a blob of me and Jesus, a blob of inner spirituality. I am a spiritual person and that doctrine stuff is not very important to me.”

I believe that doctrine is like a chassis which holds the car together. I believe that doctrine is like the skeleton within the human body that holds the body together and allows us to stand up. I believe that doctrine is like the backbone of a fish and that inner backbone gives the fish strength. So it is with doctrine. Doctrine gives our Christian faith an inner strength and holds the different parts of our beliefs together.

Today’s sermon is a teaching sermon. I would first like to review what the Bible teaches about the Trinity. I would then like to look at what church history teaches about the Trinity. Lastly, I would like to look at some contemporary analogies about the Trinity. This is a longer sermon today but I know that you can handle it.

If you would open your bulletin and we will examine the Scriptures about the Trinity. The teachings about the Trinity grow out of the Scriptures. The word, “trinity” does not occur in the Bible. The word, “trinity,” come from church history, from about the year 200 CE. The word, “trinity,” comes from a Latin word, “trinitas.” The word, “trinity,” does not occur in the Bible, but the concept of the Trinity does.

There are twenty-three Bible verses about the Trinity in the New Testament. In your bulletin insert, I have chosen to focus on a few of them. The first reading is from II Corinthians 13:13. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God (the Father), and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”  All three Trinitarian words are there in that Bible verse: Son, Father and Holy Spirit. Let us look at each part of the Bible verse.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace means gift, God’s free gift of forgiveness to us. Grace is Jesus dying on the cross to forgive us our many sins. God’s forgiveness for our sins is free but not free for Christ. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins when he was nailed to the cross and suffered unbearable pain for us. His love and forgiveness for us has been freely given. Grace means freely given. Like the rain. Like the sunshine. God gives you his gifts freely. You do nothing to deserve rain, sunshine or forgiveness.

Jesus is always called Lord. In the Old Testament, there are two words for God. There is the word, “God.” And then there is the word, “Lord.” In the Old Testament, you could say that the Lord made the heavens and the earth or you could say that God made the heavens and the earth. When you say the word, “Lord,” you mean “God.” Throughout the whole New Testament, Jesus is consistently referred to as “Lord.” When the New Testament writers put the name, “Lord” by the name of Jesus, it meant that Jesus was God. The Lord Jesus Christ also meant God Jesus Christ.

The next phrase is, “the love of God.” We could add, “God, the Father.” We hear about the love of God the Father. Now, usually when people think about God, they think about intelligence, brilliance, conceptuality. But the Bible does not focus on these attributes of God. Instead, the Bible focuses on the love of God the Father. Parents understand the following words: “I deeply love my children and grandchildren. There is no doubt about that. I love my children and my grandchildren so deeply, and so does God the heavenly Father love you and me. We are children who belong to God. In the same ways that I love my children and grandchildren is the same way that God loves each one of us. Except that God’s love for us is multiplied by a billion. We are not talking about infinite intelligence. We are not talking about infinite brilliance. We are talking about infinite love. We are talking about the God who created the heavens and the earth and the stars and the endless reaches of the universe is also that God who loves you and me endlessly as a father loves a child.

The next phrase is, “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” It is our belief that the same God who created the heavens and the earth is the same God who died in the person of Jesus and freely forgave us all of our sins is that the same God is present right now inside of your heart and inside of the hearts of this congregation. It is all the same God. The same God who was present at the creation of the universe is the same God who was crucified in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ is the same God who is present within the Christian community. This is not a lesser God who is present this morning in our community. This is not a lesser experience of God here within this church. This is not a secondary experience with God here in our worship service right now. The living God who is living inside this congregation today and living inside of your hearts is the same God who created the heavens and the earth and is the same God who was living inside of the body of Jesus.

Please examine your bulletin insert and look at the second Bible verse. “⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” I Corinthians 12:4-6. Focus on the italicized words. The same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God. These are three references to God the Son, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

Please examine the next Bible verse and the oneness of God. We are not talking about three gods but one God. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:4-6. Underline or circle the italicized words. One Spirit. One Lord. One God and Father of all.

Please examine the next Bible verse. “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.” Matthew 28:19. This is an obvious reference to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Baptisms are to be done in the name of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In all of these passages, we don’t hear the word, “trinity,” but these Biblical passages consistently referred to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The word “trinity” is a short hand formula for Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Now, let us look at our bulletin insert at the four Bible verses and all four verses are from the Gospel of John. The Apostle John is convinced that we can use the words, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, interchangeably. Let me illustrate. Jesus was talking to his disciples and said that he was going to heaven. He said, “I am going to send my Holy Spirit and my Holy Spirit will live in you.” Then he also says, “In the future I am going to come and live in you.” And then he says, “The Father is going to come and live in you.” Now, who is going to come and live in you in the future? Is the Father going to come and live in you or is Jesus, the Son, going to come and live in you or is the Holy Spirit going to come and live in you? We discover that the Apostle John uses the words, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, interchangeably.

Please look at the first verse from John 14:23. “²³Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Now, who is going to come? Is Jesus going to come and live in you? Is the Holy Spirit going to come and live in you? Is God the Father going to come and live in you?

Please look at the next verse in your insert. “When the Advocate/Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.” John 15:26. What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth? The Holy Spirit will testify on behalf of Jesus and convince us of the true identify of Jesus, that he is the Son of God.

Please look at the next verse. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate/Counselor, to be with you forever. ¹⁷This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.” John 14:16-18. Now, who is going to come and be in you? The Father? The Son? The Holy Spirit? I ask you another question: who is in you today? Is it God the Father the creator of the heavens and the earth who is inside of you? Is it God the Son inside of you? Is it God the Spirit who is inside of you? Who is inside of you today? It is all of them. It is one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This concludes the Bible study portion of the sermon for today. These Bible passages were all written down by the year 100 CE. We now walk forward one hundred years to the time of Tertullian. This is the second portion of the sermon. We will focus on early Church history and the three ancient major creeds of the church. We will begin by listening to a man by the name of Tertullian.

Tertullian lived from the year 150 to 220 CE. He lived in the city of Carthage which was in North Africa. Tertullian was a very brilliant lawyer and he was converted in his adulthood to Christ and Christianity. He was converted by none other than Augustine, the greatest of the early church leaders.

Now, we need to set the historical background. In the year 323 BCE, there was a great man by the name of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great conquered the whole known western world and the western world started to speak Greek. Our New Testament was written down in Greek. Why was the New Testament written down in Greek? Because the whole western world at that time was speaking Greek. Why did the whole world speak Greek? Because Alexander the Great conquered the whole western world in 323 BCE and the Greek language was used throughout his whole empire. But empires always rise and fall, and the Greek empire started to fall. The Greeks started to lose power. A new government, a new culture and a new civilization began to rise. It was the Roman Empire. And what was the language of the Roman Empire? Latin.

So now we have people starting to translate the Bible from Greek to Latin. The first famous person to start to think and write in Latin was a man by the name of Tertullian. Tertullian gave us important words. Tertullian gave us the word, “persona,” that God is three different persona or auras of personhood. Tertullian said that God had the persona of the Father, the persona of the Son and the persona of the Spirit. People have personas and so does God. A persona is a quality of personhood, an aura, an ambience. Tertullian also gave us the word, “trinitas.”  We don’t have the word, “trinitas,” in the Bible. “Trinitas” was a Latin word that was used one hundred years after the Bible was written in Greek. Tertullian also gave us the word, “sacramentum.”  “Sacramentum” means mystery. That Jesus was present in the bread and wine was a mystery that could not be intellectually fathomed. That God had three persona, three dimensions, three auras; this too could not be intellectually fathomed. This too was a mystery. Tertullian also gave us the Latin word, “substantia.” That means that God the Son and God the Father were of the same substance. The man, Tertullian, in the year 220 CE, was enormously influential on the language of the church for the next thousand years when Latin reigned as the primary language of the Gospels and the western Church. .

Now, let us briefly examine the three ancient creeds of the church and these ancient creeds are all Trinitarian. You need to remember this: the first three creeds of the ancient church were all Trinitarian. I would like you to turn to page 84 in your green Lutheran hymnals. You see the Apostle’s Creed. This creed is called the Apostle’s Creed, not because the twelve Apostle’s wrote it, but because this creed was named after the Apostles. The Apostle’s Creed was the baptismal creed of the church. For nineteen hundred years of church history, every time there was a baptism, the church members recited the Apostle’s Creed. When we have a baptism in our church, at our traditional worship, we always say the Apostle’s Creed. Look at the Apostle’s Creed. “I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.” “I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.” Then the third article. “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” This is a Trinitarian Creed.

Now, go to the left page. This is the Nicene Creed. This creed was written in the year 325 CE. Let me explain this. There was a man by the name of Constantine who was the emperor of the Roman Empire. Constantine was enormously influential on western history. Constantine was the emperor who insisted that you had to be a Christian to be part of his empire. He also allowed the church to own property and the church became very wealthy. Constantine also said that clergy should be except from serving in the military and since that time, clergy have been exempt from the military service.

At this time of Constantine, there were two men by the names of Athanasius and Arius. Athanasius said that the God who created the heavens and the earth became a real live human being in the person of Jesus. Jesus was fully human and fully God at the same time. But Arias said. “O no. This human body that suffered and died on the cross could not be fully God. God would never allow himself to suffer so immeasurably. A God, who is fully God, would never allow himself to be crucified. Jesus was a kind of God but was not fully God.” So Arius and Athanasius had this big debate. The results of this debate are found on page 384. “We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.” Closely look at the next lines: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father (of one substance with the Father). Through him, all things were made, for us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven by the power of the Spirit and was made man.” When you read these lines about Christ, you know that the early church believed that Jesus Christ was fully God. … That was the argument. There were many people who were saying that Jesus Christ was not fully God. That was a huge theological argument in those days.

As a footnote, Martin Luther said that  the authors of these creeds were like honey bees who went to different flowers to get honey from each of them. Similarly, the people who wrote these creeds went to different places in the Scriptures and took many phrases from many different places in the Bible and constructed a creed based on these Biblical phrases.

Please turn to page 54. This is the Athanasian Creed, the third great creed of the ancient church. All the mainline churches believed that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God for us. In addition to that, we mainline Christians believe in three creeds: The Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. All three of these creeds are part of the constitution of our congregation as they are part of all Roman Catholic churches, all Episcopalian churches, all Presbyterian churches, all Methodist churches, etc. These are all creedal churches and creedal denominations. These denominations believe in the inspired and authoritative Word of God and also in the truth that is expressed in the three major creeds.

Find the creed on page 54, the Athanasian Creed. This creed was not written by Athanasias but was named after him. Athanasias could not have written this creed. Athanasias died three hundred years earlier. This creed was named after Athanasias who wrote the Nicene Creed. The argument in this creed was whether or not the Holy Spirit was fully God e.g. whether or not the God who lives in you right now is fully God. This creed confesses that the same God who created the heavens and the earth and the same God who lived in the body, heart and mind of Jesus is the same God who is fully present in the Holy Spirit. At this point in history, the argument was between Rome and Constantinople and you have the beginning of the Greek Orthodox Church. The issue is whether or not the Holy Spirit was as fully as God the Father and God the Son. This became the division between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Church. In this Athanasian Creed, it says very clearly that the Holy Spirit is fully God.

We are a Trinitarian Church. We believe that God is the creator of the universe and it still creating today. We believe that God was fully present in the person of Jesus Christ. We also believe that the Holy Spirit is also fully God.

Point one of the sermon: we studied passages from the Bible about the Trinity. Point two of the sermon: we studied the three earliest creeds of the Church and these creeds are all Trinitarian. Point three of the sermon: we are going to briefly examine analogies about the Trinity and these analogies are helpful.

The first analogy is from Dorothy Sayers. Dorothy Sayers is a Christian theologian and she wrote the book, THE MIND OF THE MAKER. Would you all think of the play, HAMLET by Shakespeare? (Or any play for that matter.) Sayers said that the play was first in the mind of Shakespeare. Then, secondly, Shakespeare wrote it down on paper. Then, thirdly, the play was acted out on stage. Now, which of those three expressions are the play HAMLET? In the mind? On the paper? Acted out on stage? All three expressions are HAMLET. These are three different expressions of the same Hamlet. She said that is the way of God in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. All three expressions are fully God. 

Or using the argument and language of Tertullian from 220 CE, he said that there are three persona to the presence of God. Let me apply this analogy to myself. I have several different persona or roles. That is, you know me primarily as Ed Markquart, the pastor. There is a certain persona to that. You know me as a person who preaches, teaches, cares for you, counsels you, am a friend to you, a leader of this congregation. Essentially, when you know me, you know me as Ed Markquart, the pastor. There is several other dimensions to me that you don’t know about. I am a husband to my wife Jan and we have been happily married for a long, long time. We have an emotional and physical intimacy that you may think you know about, but you really don’t. Our relationship is between the two of us, and you are not part of the core of our feelings towards each other. You can observe our relationship, but the intimacies of that relationship are known only to the two of us. My wife and I share an intimacy that none of you are a part of. We have a knowledge of each other and you do not share in that knowledge. I am a husband to my wife. A third part of me that you really don’t know is “little Eddie Markquart from Jackson, Minnesota.” Now, I tell all kinds of apocryphal legends about Jackson, Minnesota. Some of those legends are true and some of them aren’t. I don’t know where fact and fiction begin and end with some of those stories. I have told those stories so often that I actually begin to believe some of the legendary aspects of them. You know the legends but you don’t know the stories as my mother and father, brother and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins know those stories. These people know Eddie Markquart from Jackson, Minnesota, but you don’t. There is a child inside of me that you will never know. All in all, there is a wonderful complexity to me as a human being, and to you also. There is the persona of a pastor. There is the persona of a husband. There is a persona of a child. To know me in all my complexity and fullness is to know me in all my personas.

And so it is with God. To know God in all of God’s wonderful complexity and persona, you need to know God the Creator who at the same time is the loving Father. You need to know God the Son who loved you so much that he died on the cross to forgive us our sins. You need to know God the Holy Spirit who is in you at this moment. It is only when you know the full persona of God that you know God.

Martin Luther knew that the truth of the Triune God was based on revelation and not reason. Let me give you an illustration of this. I am going to ask you to do something which is impossible for you to do. Would you imagine that there has never been any Christianity? There has never been any Christianity and there has been no Jesus Christ. In that situation, what do you believe about God? There is no Christianity. There is no Bible. There are no creeds. What do you believe about God? You answer, “Well, there must be something that began it all. That something that began it all must be incredibly large. That something that began it all must be incredibly intelligent. That something that began it all must have a mind of beauty because there are so many beautiful things in creation. There is a sense of mystery to it all.” So these are the conclusions that your mind in all of its intelligence can come to about God.

But based on the revelation in the Scriptures, you come to the differing conclusions about God: The God who created the heavens and earth is the God who loves you infinitely more than any earthly father or mother. You don’t come to such conclusions by your reason, intellect or brain. You don’t find such conclusions about God in your brain. You discover those conclusions through the revelation in Scripture. Similarly, that God loves you so much that he was willing to suffer and die for you on the cross, you don’t find that truth by your reason or intellect but you find it in the revelation in the Scriptures. That this God is fully present in your heart and my heart and is with us this day, such truth is not discovered in one’s own brain but is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. We find the truth about God and the truth about the Trinity, not through reason, but through revelation.

Well, this has been an exceptionally long sermon, but it is now finished. Thanks for listening so long. We conclude with the Trinitarian benediction: “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, on this day and forevermore. Amen.”

Responsive Bible Readings From the Apostle Paul about the Trinity.

Notice: Lord, God and Holy Spirit:

Leader: ¹³The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

2 Corinthians 13:1.3

Congregation: ⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6

Leader: ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6

Congregation: 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. Matthew 28:19

Responsive Bible Readings From the Gospel of John about the Trinity:

Leader: ²³ Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them,  and we will come to them and make our home with them. John 14:23

Congregation: ²⁶ "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. John 15:26

Leader: ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. John 14:20

Congregation: ¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever. ¹⁷ This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphaned; I will come to you.

 John 14:16-18

CHILDREN’S SERMON. Today, kids, we are going to look at our altar and see the messages that are in the art work on the altar. First notice the carving of Jesus and that there are five crosses in that carving (feet, hands, side) and these represent the five wounds of Christ. That statue symbolizes God the Son. Second, notice the carving of the Holy Spirit. Notice the wings of the dove and the wings look like fire. The second carving represents the Holy Spirit. Third, notice the stained glass window above the altar and what do you see? You see a sun, several moons, five stars, and rays of light. The stained glass window says that God created the heavens and the earth. The window represents God, the Creator. So up in front of the church, we see art work that says that God is the Father (creator), God is the Son, and God is the Holy Spirit. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity. 


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