Trinity Sunday : Date: June 16, 2019
– THE SERMON: John 16:12-15
Theme: Praise the Triune God, the God of our Salvation.
I. Coordination of the Triune God in our Salvation
II. The Spirit Reveals the Truth of our Salvation
( Pastor Theodore Barthels )
Bulletin: Read Bulletin
Sermon: Read Sermon
THE ORDER OF SERVICE: p.15
HYMNS: 246; 248; 237; 313:3
THE EPISTLE LESSON: Romans 5:1-5
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the God of our salvation. Because we have peace with God through Jesus Christ, we can glory in tribulation, knowing that God works for the strengthening of our faith, and a building up of the hope of glory. This hope cannot disappoint because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
THE OLD TESTAMENT LESSON: Numbers 6:22-27
This familiar benediction is indeed great testimony to the true God. Its triune formulation conveys to us the grace and peace that comes to from the Father who can only make His face to shine upon us through the righteousness of Christ, and the Holy Spirit who bring us His peace.
Sermon
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
2100 16th Street SW
Austin, MN 55912-1749
Pastor Ted Barthels
Sermon preached on
June 16, 2019
Trinity Sunday
Scripture Lessons: Numbers 6:22-27, Romans 5:1-5
Hymns: 246; 248; 237; 313:3
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sermon Text: John 16:12-15
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. (NKJV)
This is the Word of God.
Sanctify us, oh Lord, through Your truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
Fellow Redeemed in Christ:
INTRO: The Festival of the Holy Trinity
Do you believe in the Triune God? You should respond, “Of course we believe in the Triune God!” and I respond, “Of course?” Is this something that we take for granted? After all this is a truth about God that doesn’t make sense, any sense at all to the human mind! And so it has been under attack even within the church from the early centuries of the New Testament era. Errors concerning the Trinity were addressed in the universal creeds, the Apostolic, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds.
In spite of the fact that the Triune nature of the one true God is clearly confessed in all three of these ancient universal creeds, some of those errors persist within the church to this day. One of the most common errors held by many even within liberal Lutheranism is that God isn’t really three persons, but is simply presenting Himself in different forms according to function. God. So our Creator is presented as Father, Redeemer as Son, and Sanctifier as Holy Spirit, but they are not in fact different persons, just different forms of the same person, kind of like a transformer in the action movies. This abhorrent false doctrine, which has been created from a flight of man’s fancy and has no Scriptural basis, appeals to reason and is therefore accepted by many to their damnation. They are deceived into worshiping a false god instead of the God of our salvation.
In our text Jesus presents the truth that we might know and —
THEME: Praise the Triune God, the God of our Salvation.
It is a mistake on our part when we differentiate too deeply or absolutely in the participation of the different persons of God when considering the work of our salvation. What becomes apparent when we look at our text as a whole is –
I. Coordination of the Triune God in our Salvation.
Jesus tells the disciples that there is more that He needs to tell them but that they are not yet ready for it. However this was not a concern for Jesus; He rather assures them that the Spirit will guide them in all truth. The Spirit will convey that knowledge that they still lacked when they were ready and it was time for them to receive greater knowledge concerning their salvation. The Holy Spirit would not be operating independently of the Father or of the Son. Jesus assured them that the Spirit would not speak on His own, but what He received He would then also convey to the disciples.
Then Jesus makes this observation: “He (that is the Holy Spirit) will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He (again the Spirit) will take of Mine and declare it to you.” (v.14,15) What we have presented to us is the council of the Triune God. They are not three independent entities, but one God all three of whom coordinate all the work of our salvation. There is a free flow, not only of truth, but of the care for souls, of the work of salvation. Yes, we rightly define certain areas of this work of salvation as the Holy Scriptures reveal them to us. We know that God the Father sent His only begotten Son into the world. We know that it was God the Son who became incarnate, born of the Virgin Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit. As true Man as well as true God it was the Son who fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf, and then bore our sin and guilt to the cross to redeem us to God. We know that the Holy Spirit caused the Holy Scriptures to be written as He breathed into the holy writers not only ideas, but exact words expressing the truth of our salvation. We know that the Spirit works through the gospel in Word and sacrament to call us to faith that we might be heirs of God and members of the household of God. However even in this we know that this was all according to the will of the Triune God as the only true God. The Triune God, the God of our salvation intervened in world history to work this great salvation.
We are saved by the grace of God, the grace that comes to us from the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know this only and because —
II. The Spirit Reveals the Truth of our Salvation.
Concerning the message of the Holy Spirit Jesus very directly states: “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” (v.14) Again we see the complete coordination and unity of the Triune God being expressed. There is no disparity in what the Holy Spirit will reveal regarding our salvation. He will take the truth of Jesus Christ and reveal it fully and accurately for the Apostles, which truth they then wrote in the gospels and epistles to communicate that same truth to us. The Holy Spirit directed them all the along the way, and the message from beginning to end is consistent and true.
Yes, we emphasize from beginning to end, for the Spirit also directed the attention of God’s people to the coming of the Christ throughout days of old leading up to the fulfilment that is found perfectly in God’s Son coming down to earth to be our Redeemer. In all of the written Word, in all the teaching of the Apostles the Spirit reveals the glory of our Savior and the love of God the Father to us lost sinners that we might be saved.
We wholeheartedly confess with the Apostle Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ ” (Romans 1:16-17) There it is! The gospel of Christ is that wonder in which God the Son died for us and rose again. The righteousness of God, that righteousness which Christ secured, God the Father credits to us.” How? Through faith worked in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who also revealed this grace to us, and then breathed into our hearts the breath of everlasting life! Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the only true God, the God of our salvation.
This salvation which we now hold dear in our hearts is not for this life only. Jesus also made the point that the Holy Spirit would reveal things to come. What marvelous plans God has for each and every one of us who have been called to faith! Oh, yes, it is His earnest desire that all be saved, but it is through faith alone that we possess the hope of everlasting life. We know what the Spirit has revealed. Christ shall come again. He shall call our bodies forth from the grave, and our vile, earthly bodies will be transformed to be like His glorious body. We know, because we have the Spirit’s word for it, and He is the Spirit of truth. This culmination of God’s plan of salvation will find its fulfillment in a new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness dwells. This is what God has in store for all who believe. This is the hope of glory that shall not disappoint, that cannot be taken away from us.
Today is the Festival of the Holy Trinity. God in His grace has revealed Himself to us. The glory of the LORD as the most holy God is more than any man can bear. We could not see God and live. However God has chosen to reveal Himself to us in His grace. He reveals Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord. This revelation did not come through will of man but by the will of God. It comes to us by the Spirit of Truth, who has now called us by the gospel so that we might know and worship and praise forevermore the only true God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, these three from eternity, and yet one God, the God of our salvation!
AMEN.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Amen. (Romans15:13)