June 15 – Sermon
Father, Son, Holy Spirit, in our confusion, please be patient with us and lead us into greater understanding of Your word. When we become legalistic, teach us the language of forgiveness. When we wander away from You, please bring us back to the church. Please grant that we may be filled with joy, and faith to believe. May Your grace become the contents of our days. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Holy Trinity Sunday provides us with a special day to remember and to learn more about the essence and anchor and foundation of our faith. It is beautifully and precisely summed up in the three Creeds of Christianity: Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. The Creeds tell us about who God is, but there’s a lot more than that. They let us know also who we are.
This text from John 8 is filled with heated disagreement. But that’s true whenever we talk about the Holy Trinity, because we do so from a human reasoning. Not even the person with the highest IQ can give an adequate description of the Holy Trinity.
Jesus calls himself “I am” in different contexts of John’s Gospel and in most cases, there is always a further description. Jesus says, I AM the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Vine…” but in the Gospel for today we don’t have a description. It is “I am”; period.
Jesus was talking about Himself as equal to God. That’s why the Jews listening to Him got so angry that they picked up stones to throw at Him. God the Father–is the Creator of all things. The Father is the cause of everything we see, and He is the One who maintains it day after day.
In one sense that’s very comforting word. As we hear many dreadful predictions for the future of life on this planet, we should take comfort in the fact that God is ultimately the One who has everything in His hands. But we are no different than our first parents, because we all think we know better than God.
God the Son is the Redeemer.
Psalm 8: When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.
In the Gospel for today, Jesus states: “before Abraham was, I am.”
On Pentecost, Peter was preaching…remember what he said about Jesus? He is the Messiah, pierced on a Cross, but the one who left an empty tomb behind Him so that our hearts would be filled, through faith, granting to us His love, forgiveness, and His salvation.
Jesus is one with the Father, yet He is the Son of God. Not just a Master, or a prophet or a Good Person.
The discussion about God and The Holy Trinity is essentially a discussion about Christ. Jesus is the focus in today’s Gospel. Are we absolutely certain that Jesus is the Son of God?
The second article of the Apostles Creed talks about the One man who came to mend this mess, to bridge the gap; to be the way back to God the Father. Christ Jesus is the Son of God, True God and True Man; the Comforter of our hearts; and His Gospel points the Way to His Word as a guide for life. We should never follow the law because we are afraid of not pleasing God. In Christ, God is already pleased at us. and thus our response is to love Him and our neighbors.
God The Holy Spirit is the Comforter who brings us that saving faith.
Trinity means “that there are three beings in God. It is a heavenly mystery which the world cannot understand. It is not based upon human logic or comparison, for God alone has the perfect knowledge concerning himself.”
We are creations from the Hands of the Father. We are not product of chance, neither is our world. We are meant to be here and now. Our world was created as the home for God’s creatures, but most importantly for us as humans.
We are His CHILDREN because God the Father created us. But we are also His children, by faith in Jesus.
We are temples of the Holy Spirit because God dwells in us by faith. And we are called to do the works of God. We are called to serve Him by serving others; We are to witness to others about the one true God.
As dear children of our beloved Heavenly Father we are called to thank, praise, serve and obey him. Not because we have to, but because we want to do things that please Him.
So what is the proof of the pudding? When we live out what we say we believe; when we practice what we preach.
Being in Christ impacts directly on our daily life, because in Him we have a perfect Truth.
Father’s Day is a day to value and give thanks to God for the men who were/are Godly father figures in our lives. Scripture admonishes men to be good fathers to their children by following the one who is the way the Truth and the life. Every father is to teach his children the one true faith.
Folks that means we practice what we preach. As fathers men must always choose their steps carefully, because their children are walking right behind them.
It takes a humble heart, one of humility, to bow down before the Lord our God; to seek His wisdom – and live lives pleasing to Him every day in every way. We are children of the Holy Trinity. As we learn about our God, as we place faith in Him, as we walk with Him, we can exclaim with David in Ps. 8: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!” Amen
