Sermon Cloud

How do you explain a relationship?

How do you diagram it?

Man and woman

Acquaintances

Friends

Courtship

Married

Trinity – Father, Son, Holy Spirit

When Jesus was baptized, the Spirit descended on him, and a voice from heaven said “This is my Son, whom I love…” Matthew 3:16-17

Jesus told his disciples to make disciples by baptizing “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” and teaching. Matthew 28:18-20

The other New Testament authors also referred to the Trinity

Paul wrote that there is one Spirit, and one Lord, and one God and Father of all. Ephesians 4:4-6

Peter – 1 Peter 1:2

John – 1 John 3:23-24 and 4:12-14

Jude – Jude 1:20-21

People diagram the Trinity like this

Remember the Renaissance? Scientific revolution?

This diagram is an attempt to explain WHAT God is.

John 10:30 I and the Father are one." (NIV)

John 14:10-11 (p 749) ¹⁰ Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. (NIV)

These diagrams illustrate the one-ness of God.

St. Patrick used the Shamrock

Today, we say

GOD the Father, GOD the Son, and GOD the Holy Spirit.

The Bible just says “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are ONE. But there is more to God than that.

John 14:26 (p 750) But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (NIV)

The Father sends the Spirit in the name of the Son

ACTION. PLAN. Why?

John 14:15-17 (p 749)  ¹⁵ "If you love me, you will obey what I command. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (NIV)

Jesus does not want us to be alone. Father does not want us to be alone. We have the Counselor/Helper with us FOREVER

John 14:18-19 ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. (NIV)

Father was with us: cloud by day, fire by night – Exodus 13:21

Son was with us: Jesus of Nazareth, about 3 BC to AD 30 – Acts 1:1-11, see Luke 3:1

Now Holy Spirit is with us – John 3:8

Notice Christ promised they would see him, and live because he lives.

John 14:20-21 ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." (NIV)

Church as Bride of Christ

--diagram that relationship—

You and God

Know about God

Know God

Trust God

Belong to God

[The Son speaking to the Father]

²⁰ "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:20-21 (NIV)

Son prayed

We would be one with Father

As the Son is one with the Father

Not that God would become one with us

That we would become one with God

That we would keep giving up ourselves to be God’s

More and more everyday