“Threefold Holy”
Isaiah 6:1-8
Acts 2:14a, 22-36
John 3:1-17
Trinity
In John 3:16 we hear that “God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only (which, in Greek, is monogenes … of the same, unique, one-of-a-kind genes) Son, that whoever believes in the content of Him should not perish but have eternal life”. And following that, He said: “he who believes in who He is is not condemned; He who does not is condemned already”.
Isaiah saw and heard seraphim worship God as Triune. Called the Lord singularly upon the throne (though in all three of His Persons worthy of praise) the song acknowledging Him as Threefold Holy is what we opened our service with, and Heaven sang it with us: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole world is full of His glory!” As Jesus prepared to ascend from this earth, He petitioned His Father and promised to send Him who is the Helper and told us to baptize in the full name: “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”.
The belief of the Church has always been Trinitarian. The Apostles’ Creed was in use during the apostles’ lifetime … they’re rumored to have written it. The Church reinforced, then, that Trinitarian faith against threats-to-it by writing Nicene and Athanasian Formulas. Membership in God’s catholic (or universal) Church (and salvation, itself) has demanded, minimally, an acceptance of God as three in one.
So, as the Christian Church always has, we just said that “whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith, and this is the catholic faith” as we spoke of it. Within those words that we said were the details of a faithful belief in the Trinity and (with that, then) the “incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ” (meaning God became man … incarnate). “Whoever (the Creed says) does not believe this reality faithfully and firmly cannot be saved”.
But grace be to you and peace God who is Father, +Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Text
In the name of Him, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, His Church, now, moves, fully, into the 2015 Season of our Life in His Pentecost. Hot on the heels of God’s bestowing of His Holy Spirit to it, Peter, then, grounded the Church by affirming God in His Triune nature. As if the Trinity was, almost, “old news”, Peter told Jews that God’s “Holy One” who David referenced way back when was Jesus, who’d been, just, crucified and raised. Describing Him as now ascended, resuming His place at the Father’s throne, both Father and Son Peter clearly identified … at the same time as it’s the Holy Spirit who people were getting to see the work of themselves.
There’d been noticeable presentations of the Triune Godhead in the Old Testament. Creation offered wonderful examples of it as does even what we saw, last week, in the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. The Jews before the Lord’s incarnation may have known something well that their counterparts, after His work, chose to forget: God is Father, Word, and Spirit, all in one.
And the big deal, really, is this: if God had not, actually, offered Himself into death through His Son (the sacrifice being equal to God in genes, therefore substance, as the Greek stipulates) … if that was not God, then we remain in sin not paid for, sufficiently, with Divine (Holy) blood. Man can’t die enough to pay for, even, his own sins; but God? Well He can die to pay for all sin. ….
Application
There’s a tremendous connection between John 3:16 and the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. Both describe the Gospel the way it had to have been discussed within the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit before He, even, began creation). The all-knowing Father shows His Son the effects of the sin which man would, inevitably, do. The “Son of Man” (ultimately) like Ezekiel got called it, was Jesus, and as the Dry Bones’ vision of this Heavenly conversation was shared with the prophet, here’s how it began (remember): “The hand of the Lord was upon Me” (and you can hear the Son saying that, first, about Himself), “and He” (the Father) “brought Me” (the Son) “out in the Spirit of the Lord” (so now we have all three in the Divine Godhead) “and set Me down in the middle of the valley” it continued (and here we have the forecast of the incarnation). “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (even making Him to be a Son of Man dropped into the midst of the mass of the rest) “that whoever believes in Him” (in the full content of Him, who and how He is in the Divine Godhead becoming man-also for us Dry Bones) “would not perish but have everlasting life”. That’s the Gospel, and God is, indeed, great, for having done all of it Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. …..
So, think about it: in the discussion of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (in the time that was before time) the forecast of dried bones (after creation had made them to live) was visualized and considered. Sourced by the Father as a plan to set the Son right down into the middle of them (be called them, even) and make happen (as the Divine Himself) their re-construction, calling the wind of the Holy Spirit in to fully build not just an army of flesh, but an army of His with life from the Breath of God in it. …..
Here is where my formal commentary ends. No sermon is an end to itself; it is, but, a beginning for those who care further. Where we go from here is up to you. The entire history (even before time) and the Gospel, itself, is spoken in a passage (John’s 3:16) and visually- shown in the revelation given to Ezekiel. It has a simplicity that can be sung in a song, but, also, a depth to be further-unpacked and enjoyed with every new day or thought.
So, what do you see? What would you like to see better? Let’s spend as much time now as we’d like (questions, comments, or insights are yours to make now) … and this conversation won’t end after the minutes we allow for it now. It’s my prayer that we all will talk a lot more about this in whatever contexts we allow for it.
The floor, now, is yours: ………………………………………………………………………
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In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.