Download - About Crown of Life Lutheran Church

John 3:1-17
Be Amazed
Holy Trinity
June 3, 2012
(Many of the thoughts included in this sermon were gleaned from the book “Prepared to Answer,” written by Prof. Mark
Paustian, specifically pages 58-63)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you. Amen.
(Forgive me for mostly reading this first part, it proved to be difficult to memorize. You'll see why in a moment.)
In the Hindu religion, Shiva and Vishnu are regarded as Mahādevas ("great gods" ) due to their central positions in worship
and scriptures. These two along with Brahma are considered the Trimurti—the three aspects of the universal supreme God.
These three aspects symbolize the entire circle of samsara in Hinduism: Brahma as creator, Vishnu as preserver or
protector, and Shiva as destroyer or judge.
The Tridevi or triplet goddesses of Hinduism have close to equal importance as the trimurti. Brahma is creator, so he needs
knowledge or goddess Saraswati to create. Vishnu is observer, so he needs the goddess of wealth and prosperity, goddess
Lakshmi. Finally, Shiva is destroyer and re-creator, so he needs goddess Parvati, Durga, or Kali for power. Without the
Tridevi, the Trimurti are not complete and vice versa.
Confused yet? I sure was when I tried to get a handle on what the Hindu faith was all about. What I wanted to do was to
share a bit about what other religions taught about the essence and nature of God. But I found myself immediately baffled
by these thoughts and ideas that sounded so foreign and weird.
But then I thought about what someone might think the first time they ever heard about the Triune God. We said this just
a moment ago, “The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So the
Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord; yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord.” Does that sound
reasonable to you? Does that sound like something you can wrap your head around?
Perhaps you have heard an analogy or two used to try and bring this God down to our level. He's like an egg – shell, yoke,
and white – three parts but just one thing. He's like water – liquid, ice, vapor – three different forms of the same thing.
He's like a three leaf clover, three branches all coming from the same stem. But like they say, when it comes to God, every
analogy limps. No earthly object is going to adequately describe what the one true God is like.
So here it is as straight forward as possible. Scripture teaches that there is only one God, and his name is the Lord. The
Father is not one-third part of God, he is fully God. The same is true of the Son, 100% percent God. The same is also true of
the Spirit, all God all the time. Yet, they are not different forms that this God takes whenever he feels like it. They are each
fully God, yet they are also distinct and unique persons. So much so, in fact, that they relate to and interact with one
another. The Father sends his Spirit. The Spirit rests upon the Son. The Son prays to the Father. They speak to one
another, honor one another, love one another. Yet through all of this interaction and activity there still remains only one
God. There is no brain in all the world that can make sense of this, no analogy that can truly describe how this works.
And that's what led me to my next baffling thought: This is what I believe. Without qualification, without reservation,
without even a hint of consternation, this is what I believe. This is what we all believe. It makes no logical sense. The idea
that anyone or anything could have this kind of three-in-one makeup is beyond preposterous. Yet, somehow, we accept
this without flinching. We can't grasp the concept with our finite minds, yet we receive this as the truth. It makes me want
to echo the thought of Nicodemus, “How can this be?”
The answer sounds almost as convoluted as everything we've talked about thus far. Faith in the Trinity only comes because
of the Trinity. Just in case that didn't stick let me run it back one more time. Faith in the Trinity only comes because of the
Trinity. Here's how Jesus put it in his conversation with Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of
God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” To enter the kingdom is to come into a right relationship with God. It is to
believe all that he is, all that he says, and all that he does. When you consider just how unbelievable God is, it's no wonder
that we can't come into his kingdom on our own. We can't bring ourselves into a relationship with him. We can't connect
ourselves to him on our own. He's too far beyond us. He's out of our reach.
But still, we want to know more. We want to know why we can't just come to God on our own. Again, Jesus tells us, “Flesh
gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” We are flesh and blood, born of mothers and fathers who in turn
were born of more flesh and blood. It was flesh that first decided to eat the fruit of the tree, to abandon the wisdom of
God who created it. It was flesh that first decided that killing another human being was an ok thing to do. It was flesh that
conjured up thousands of ways to pervert and twist every last gift that God gave to mankind. It was the flesh of man that
brought forth sin, and it is into this flesh that we were born. It makes our minds dull, our hearts hard, our eyes blind, our
ears deaf. Our sinful flesh makes it impossible to accept anything that comes from the Spirit.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems of the flesh. When God pulled back the veil to show
Isaiah a glimpse of himself, what did the angels cry? “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty.” God has no sin. The Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit have no wickedness within them at all. Could He possibly allow for flesh such as ours to join him in
eternity? Could he ever let sin come anywhere near his kingdom? Not on your life. So the flesh of man is separated from
God by sin. We are cut off from the Almighty LORD. And if you think that your life is rough right now, imagine what would
happen if God weren't looking after you at all. That's hell, the only thing that our flesh can earn.
So how then have we ever come to trust in the Trinity? How did we ever come to worship and adore the Triune God? Like I
said, it only happened because of the Trinity. And really, this is what should amaze us the most about our phenomenal
God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit make up this unfathomable community of power and might. He is an eternally
unbroken circle of love, goodness and peace. And he decided that he wanted to bring you into it.
Imagine again the brilliant scene that Isaiah saw of God's throne room, the great majesty and magnificence of God. And
now think of how this great and glorious God came for you. He willingly left all the goodness and glory of heaven to
become like us in every way. On a miserable hill outside of Jerusalem, nailed to a tree, the Son of God cried, “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?” So complete was Jesus' connection to whole world that “God made him...to be sin for
us.” The guilt of us all was taken up into the Trinity itself, there to be atoned. Sin's awful power to separate was felt
between the Father and the Son as the Father turned his face away and the Son sank into hell. All Jesus ever heard from his
Father for all eternity was, “This is my son, whom I love.” But on that one day, the eternally unbroken circle was broken.
Why? To let you in. To provide forgiveness for your sins. To bring holiness to your sinful flesh. To bring life to your body
that was doomed to death. To let you into the kingdom of the Trinity for all eternity.
The Trinity is not a riddle to be solved or a puzzle to be figured out. It is instead a truth that rests outside the bounds of our
reason and intellect, and yet is also a revelation from God that drives us to our knees in wonderment and awe. It shows us
that God is so much more than we could ever imagine or comprehend. This God is awesome! And amazingly, he wants us
to be a part of Him, and of His kingdom.
So here is what the Trinity did. In love the Father sent his one and only Son for you. In love the Son was lifted up for you.
In love the Father sent you his Spirit. In love the Spirit cleared your mind, opened your eyes, melted your heart. Because of
the work of the Trinity you believe. Because of the work of God, you have eternal life. Be amazed at the wonders of the
Triune God. Be amazed that all this has been revealed to you. Amen.