Trinity Sunday June
7, 2009
John 3:1-17 How
Can God be Triune?
Dear fellow redeemed,
Some things are inconceivable, we could even say
incomprehensible!
* Coming to mind is the
man who decides to sexually assault a young woman. We wonder how one could be so twisted, so
evil.
How could he be this
way? It’s easier not to deal with the
question.
We just put it out of our
mind.
* But what if there’s another element to
the story?
After being assaulted, the
woman decides to carry this child full term, give birth to her child, and then
be a mother to him.
* People will then be
asking their question about her:
How could she be so
caring when this child, both before and
after he’s born, simply reminds her of this horrible ordeal she went
through?
* How
could she be this way?
Essentially, this is the question we’re giving
consideration to this morning about our God.
It’s the question of Nicodemus.
* God knew what would
happen to us, his children.
Satan would assault the first woman,
Eve.
As a result, the entire
human race would lose their innocence before God.
* How could God go ahead and create
us? And how could he fix things after
everything went haywire? How could we
still be his children?
“How can these things be?
* We can ask the question
in many different ways, and you know what we’re really asking when all
is said and done? How can God be
Triune?
* How can he be
this way? How can he create us - giving us life, sanctify
us-giving us faith, and on top of it all, redeem us giving us sinners salvation?
We might find it frustrating, certainly a bit
humbling, this Trinity Sunday if we were to try to comprehend our God, who he
is and what is his work.
* Our creed speaks of the
Triune God as . . . “The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible,
and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.”
* That’s what we’re faced with when we
try to come to grips with our God who’s three in one, and who must be if
we’re to have a future with him.
* According to our human reason, we’re doomed to failure before
we even begin our task.
That’s the problem Nicodemus was facing in today’s
text.
* He
approaches Jesus because he wants to know more about him.
He seeks understanding. He’s seen his miracles, but who is this
Christ?
* What’s his business on
earth? And how does it all relate to God
and his Kingdom? “Rabbi, we know that
you are a teacher who comes from God, for no one can do these signs that you do
unless God is with him.”
* Nicodemus is saying,
basically: “I know about you, Jesus.
But if I can understand just
a little more, I might be convinced.
And if everything makes sense
to me, I can be your follower unlike a lot of other pharisees.” It doesn’t sound so unreasonable, does
it?
* But
notice how Jesus immediately deflates the ego of this pharisee.
“Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he
cannot see the kingdom of God.” He’s
telling the man: You know even less then you realize.
* Noone
sees the kingdom of God unless he trusts in the true God.
Understanding is not
enough. You must be born again. You must believe.
Scriptures suggest that Nicodemus did become
a believer, but at this point of our reading he may remind us of many of
today’s unbelievers.
* “Believe that God is
triune? It doesn’t make any sense.
Either he’s one and the signs
and wonders of Jesus and the Holy Spirit prove nothing except that God works in
mysterious ways.
* “Or
you have three different gods who are somehow connected in purpose. They’re on the same team so to speak.
* “But in either case,
you don’t have God becoming a human being.
Either you’re the creator,
or you’re the creation. You can’t have it both ways.
It just doesn’t make
sense. It’s impossible for God to be
triune!”
But you know what their real objection is? They’d rather trust in their reason, their
human comprehension, than trust in the true God.
* To
trust in the true God is to trust, first of all, in the Father.
We believe the Father has
known the Son and the Holy Spirit from eternity.
He’s known them as distinct persons
from himself.
* From eternity the
Father has loved both the Son and the Holy Spirit and has related to them on a
personal basis.
* And that explains how
he could love his creation and want to have a relation-ship with us and
restore that relationship when our sin threatened to ruin it once and for all.
* So maybe we can’t
understand how God is triune.
But
we can certainly understand and believe why it’s so important he is.
But sinful humans always want to understand more
than they’re permitted to understand.
And we Christians too would like to understand more. And we try.
* If we can’t understand
the work of the Father, who creates us, perhaps we can understand the work of
the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us.
* If we can’t understand
how God who creates us can have a relationship with us, maybe we
can understand how God who converts us can make us believers.
* But if the Father is
incomprehensible, we should know so is the Holy Spirit.
Knowing the Holy Spirit and
believing in him won’t answer all our questions.
And that brings us back to
Nicodemus.
It wasn’t enough for this man
to simply believe.
* Christ
had told him that to see the kingdom of God one must be born again. To be saved, a whole new connection with God
must be put in place.
It would
happen through Baptism which enables a person to believe in God.
* But
Nicodemus wasn’t satisfied with Christ’s words.
His reason required more of an explanation. So he asks: “How can a man be born when is
old?” Was he supposed to reenter his
mother’s womb, somehow re-connect
himself to the umbilical cord? Jesus
spoke of the impossible!
* It may come across a bit differently today. But the same question is asked.
“How can an
infant believe? They don’t have the
ability to reason.
They can’t
comprehend who Jesus is, what he’s done!” Believe? Impossible!
* But
do we really have to make sense out of things before we believe?
We certainly
will prefer it. When we don’t
understand, we feel vulnerable.
* That’s
why many in the church are opposed to baptizing children.
To teach that
a child is born again and actually believes, is to mess with a person’s
sense of independence.
* We’re
saying, that being saved has nothing to do with our abilities; believing has
nothing to do with our ability to understand the Christian faith.
That’s right! And we can
thank our God for that if we take a closer look at ourselves.
* “That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.” To be born of flesh is to
be born a sinner. Each of us are born
having had our connection with God; our relationship broken.
* As a result, in our
natural state; when we first come into this world, we can’t know or understand
God as we should.
* We’re
born spiritually dead. And we’re born with no power to change our
situation. What’s dead cannot will
itself into living.
* “But
the Spirit gives birth to spirit” we’re told, which is to say that the Holy
Spirit brings about the change in us all by himself.
But that brings us back to
our original question. “How can these things be?”
* How can faith be enough
in the end?
How can the
Holy Spirit give God a reason for me entering his Kingdom?
* As a
pharisee, Nicodemus no doubt had relied on his own righteous works to be
saved. He had been trained to be
self-righteous, and so was incapable of thinking of God as one who requires
nothing from us to enter heaven.
As far as he was concerned, this went against all common sense and reason.
* It
wasn’t what God would do, that would assure him of heaven.
It’s what he
did.
* So Jesus answers this
“how can these things be?” question with a question of his own. “If I have
told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell
you heavenly things?”
* Earthly
things is what God does to us. He places
faith in our heart.
Heavenly
things, on the other hand, is what God does to himself.
He sheds his
blood for us.
* This is how we’re saved
finally. It’s not the message about the
Holy Spirit.
It’s the
work and message about God the Son, Jesus Christ.
And it is so simple to
understand. “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.”
* God the Father
sacrifices his Son so that the sins of the world might be charged to Christ and
everyone in the world should be forgiven.
* But
once again there’s the temptation to consult our reason.
How could
the death of this one man count for the whole world?
* How can God take our place, everyone’s place, and all at the
same time?
We want to
make sense out of it, but again we can help thinking: God is messing with our sense of
independence.
* If being Triune means that God saves us without the slightest
contribution on our part, maybe we don’t need to emphasize that he’s triune.
People can’t
make sense out of it anyway.
* But
do you see where our reasoning has brought us?
Once again
we’ve made our understanding more important than our faith.
Whenever we allow this to
happen in our lives, it’s time to recall what God does permit us to
comprehend.
* We can comprehend how
our sin has brought hurt and disorder to our lives and those we love. We
comprehend how our words have antagonized that someone who’s just trying to be
faithful in his work; our selfishness has distanced us from that friend; our
procrastination has gotten in the way of encouraging that loved one; our pride
has prevented family healing from taking place.
* There’s
a lot we can comprehend but where we still have no solution, no means of
repairing the harm we’ve caused.
But you know what we can
comprehend just as easily as our sin and our short-comings? It’s our
situation when our sin is removed from the picture.
* Although
we’ll never comprehend fully our Triune God and his incredible works of grace,
we can comprehend that we’re a part of his kingdom through Jesus Christ and his offering on the cross.
* We
can comprehend how despite our nature which is sinful, God’s nature is that he
loved us enough to take our place and so take our sin.
We may not
deserve it, but we can comprehend that we’re going to heaven.
* And
so can we comprehend the work of the Holy Spirit.
We can comprehend that we enter God’s
Kingdom through Baptism.
We can
comprehend what it means to trust in Christ for the riches of forgiveness and
life everlasting. And we can comprehend
that the Holy Spirit will keep us saved through Baptism and the message of the
Gospel.
* And
so we can comprehend how our Father would create in the first place, in his own
image, so that we may have a relationship with him just as the Son and the Holy
Spirit do.
How Can God be Triune?
* It’s
another way of asking how can God be God?
How can God keep us after sin has spoiled us? Despite the devil’s assault, how can we be
saved?
* Thank God I don’t have
to understand it all, but can believe it just the same. For my Triune God has given me his Word on
it. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.