Auto Generated Transcript
Who is your God? What is it you really believe about that God that you follow? And quite honestly, when when you die, who do you anticipate to come before and meet face to face? If someone were to ask you that question, who is your God? Is that an answer that you could readily define for them? We talk about the idea of God. It is a very captivating, thought provoking, difficult to describe being that we follow. Leave it up to Webster. Look it up in Webster. See what Webster defines as being God. To define God within our lives isn’t just grasped through the meaning and definition of of one word. When God was asked that question by Moses, he simply responded, I am. But in seeing the life of God played out in the New and Old Testament. What we discover is God is much, much more someone to ask you the question Who is God? What would be your response? Our desire as we go through this series together is to define what it is we as believers truly believe, and what we should believe in and what we claim to trust in should dictate how we choose to live our lives. God’s desire for us is to understand him truthfully and understanding him truthfully. We can begin to know him personally and understanding him personally. We can enjoy him relationally. Who is God? When you look throughout Scripture, God can be defined in several aspects.
God can be defined through his actions. God his creator. God his judge. God his redeemer God can be defined through the titles or names given to him. He is Yahweh. He is Lord. He is Messiah. He is master. He is King. God can be defined through the images that are given to him or attributed to him. Said in Scripture that God is like a father. He is like a son. He is like a rock. He is like a husband. He is a Savior. He is a Redeemer. In addition to that, there are the qualities of God defined through his attributes. Attributes of God help us to claim, claim, claim, and paint a more beautiful picture and understanding God and His most descriptive form. It’s indicated to us through the Bible attributes like his holiness, his goodness, his love, his grace. When we look at the attributes of God, there are ways in which they even categorize the attributes of God. One is through the form of incommunicable attributes and the other is through the form of communicable attributes. And if you’re scratching your head wondering what that means, good, because I did too when I first heard it. And communicable means that which we can’t relate to God. We have nothing within ourselves as human beings to connect and understand God in that capacity. Communicable means as people, we reflect God in that way. His incommunicable attributes would include things such as God’s self-sufficiency.
God is not dependent on anything in this world that is created, tells us in the book of acts that God isn’t dependent on us as man’s, as though he needed anything. Everything in this world that’s been designed or created, God owns even your bank account. You just happen to be the stewards over it. God is self-sufficient. God is unchangeable in his promises and purposes for creation. When God gives us a promise as people, we can hold to it. And that’s why today, as we study the Bible, we don’t have to worry about God changing his mind over any topic or subject. Because when God has declared a truth or promise to us as people, what was true? 1500 years ago written about God is true for us today. God is unchangeable. Another incommunicable attribute. God is eternal. Tells us about Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And Psalm 90 and verse two, it says, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Before anything existed, before time created for any creature to come into existence in this world, God is. He is eternal. God is omnipresent. That means there’s nowhere in this world that you may go that you cannot escape the presence of God. God is omniscient. He knows everything. We as people are limited in our knowledge and can’t relate to a God who knows so much. God is omnipotent, meaning God is all powerful. The governing of this universe is held within the palm of his hands.
Those are the incommunicable attributes of God. But in addition to that, we find the communicable attributes that which we can relate to and understanding better who he is. God is love. It tells us in first John chapter four and verse eight, God is merciful. God is gracious. God is holy. God is peaceful. God is judge over all. God is. God is glorious. God is sovereign. God is free from everything. God is righteous. God is truth. We study both the incommunicable attributes of God and the communicable attributes of God, that which we can relate to, that which we can’t relate to. What is our response as people? We look in Romans chapter one and verse 19. It tells us because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power. His divine nature has been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. God has made himself known to us as people, and the correct response to Romans chapter one is for us to know him more deeply. Romans chapter one tells us in verse 18, for the wrath of God is against all disobedience. And he goes on to say in verse 19 and 20 that God is holding us accountable for our understanding and response to him.
All creation’s purpose, beginning, existence and end goes through God and the incommunicable attributes of God. That is a mouthful to say. Hopefully it’s the last time I say that. His Incommunicable attributes. This is the response that we find within Scripture. Great is the Lord. It says in Psalms and highly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Anyone ever think about the longevity of heaven in their lives and never become scared? When I was a little kid, I would think about having a lot, and to me it was sitting next to God and eating popsicles and watching Nickelodeon all day or some TV station. That was the best I could picture of heaven. But as a little kid, I began to think in my mind, wait a minute. I’m going to be there forever and ever and ever. And you start to scare me. Oh, what are we going to do forever? Float on clouds just won’t cut it. I like what Isaiah 55 and verse eight says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. That’s comforting. Here’s why. Nor are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. When you think about the incommunicable, there it is attributes of God that which we can’t relate to God and understanding. Do you know God is so enormous that his his character, his understanding hasn’t even begun to? We haven’t begun to scratch the surface of understanding who God is in our lives.
The depth of God is so rich that for the rest of eternity, you will delight in growing to understand him more deeply every day. You’ll never get bored in heaven. Hopefully you never get bored in church. I think boredom is just a reflection of the sin nature that exists in this world. But God is not boring. The depths of who God is is unfathomable. And so when we talk about his attributes, which we can’t relate to, his eternal presence, his omniscience, his his omnipotence, his sovereign power over this world, the reflection within the Bible is just to stand in awe of who God is. God, I can’t quite understand what this means, but man, you are glorious. The second response is we see the communicable attributes of God. Um, excuse me, I think I skipped over it. I didn’t it comes in It comes in Psalm 95 and verse six. It says, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. His attributes, which we can relate to and understand, help us as people to engage more specifically in our worship. So the Bible says we love him because he first loved us. And the more I understand about God’s love in my life, the verse says, the more I relate and love God in return. His attributes which relate to me, help me to understand a better picture of who God is, and therefore begin to worship him.
The more truthfully we understand God, the more personal he becomes to us and the more we enjoy him relationally. You know, as I consider all the characters of God, all the attributes of God, the way God has defined himself in Scripture, perhaps one of the most difficult things that I, I hear believers describe in an incorrect way has to do with the topic of the Trinity. The topic of the Trinity is a difficult passage for us to fathom. It’s one of the most difficult ideas of God for us to comprehend. It requires us, in some degree to stand, as it says in the book of Isaiah, in all of who God is. The fourth century, Augustine said, if we consider the Trinity, we will lose our mind. But if we fail to recognize the Trinity, we could lose our soul. The word Trinity interesting is nowhere to be found within the Bible. It came later, within 100 years after the scriptures were written to us by a man named Tertullian. And the reason Tertullian came up with this word is because he sees God defined for us throughout all of Scripture. And Christians were looking at this thing, scratching their head, thinking, how do we just begin to describe who God is in this way? They kind of gave the pardon me for this expression, but the look of like a holy constipation, right? And this morning.
This morning, if you got that look, I’ll point you out, all right. But we’re going to explain the Trinity and the way for us to be able to comprehend it. One of the difficult passages they came to started very early on in the book of Genesis, very cleverly written. It says in the beginning you’ve seen this in the last few weeks. God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And look at this. And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. Here we have God and the Spirit of God existing. More difficulty was added as they read further into Scripture, because when you got to verse 26, it says, Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let’s stop for a minute and think about this word us. I like how some of the historical Jewish rabbis have traditionally tried to deal with this scripture. What is God talking about when he says us? I believe they would say it’s God and the angels and discussion together over creation. Problem with that is angels didn’t necessarily be described as creating within the Bible. The additional problem to that is when you read verse 27 and it says, And God created man in his own image.
How do we go? The plurality of the word us in verse 26 to verse 27, with the singularity of one God. And in chapter one and verse one and verse two, we find God creating the universe and the Spirit of God governing over the world. What in the world is happening here? And then that look on your face just comes across? I don’t get it. As we see throughout the rest of Scripture, we recognize that the Bible plainly makes it clear in a monotheistic society, there is only one God. As a matter of fact, if you study any religion that has its roots in the Old Testament, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, they are monotheistic in their belief. There is only one God. The scriptures are emphatic over the topic. And yet, as the scriptures play out, we see the Holy Spirit described as God and Jesus described as God and the father described as God. How? How does that all work? And Tertullian came in the beginning of the second century and gave us a word to describe it the Trinity. I actually prefer the word Trinity. Try showing his threeness and unity, showing his oneness. If we looked at a definition this morning, I want you to think about this definition of the Trinity in three parts. We came up with this definition not first. We looked at Scripture and the definition of Trinity was was brought forth out of what the Scripture communicates to us as people.
So if you think about this topic and this definition in three topics, it helps to create in our minds a more clearly outlined purpose of what Scripture says. It says the Trinity is one God. Topic one. Remember, Trinity is one God who exists in three distinct persons, being the father and the son and the spirit. Another topic who exists in three distinct persons, and then finally who are each fully and equally God. We talk about the idea of the Trinity, this. This is exactly what we mean to define it more specifically and help us to have a better understanding within our minds. We’re going to use some scripture passages to help create what what this definition says. So we can see as it’s communicated throughout the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament, that the Word of God communicates this truth for us. There is only one God. The Bible tells us. Deuteronomy chapter four and verse 35, it says to you it was shown that you might know that the Lord He is God, and there is no other beside him. Early on it eliminates any possibility of any other God existing Deuteronomy 32 and 39. See, now that I. I am he, and there is no God beside me. Maybe I should say this is God talking, by the way. Isaiah 4310. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe, and understand that I am he.
Before me there was no God formed, and there will be none after me. This is why, when Moses asked God, who should I tell the children of Israel sending me? And God says, I am meaning I exist, I am here. My presence is defined by time. I have always been. And this verse passage we just read, there is no God form before God. There is no God after God. There is God. Isaiah 40 46I am the first, I am the last, and there is no God beside me. I would come to that verse and say, okay, either God is foolish and he doesn’t know that there are other gods, or God is sovereign and he understands everything behind the universe and says to us, there is no God. Isaiah 45 and verse five, I am the Lord, and there is no other beside me There is no God. Emphatically the Bible says to us, there is only one God. It’s a matter of fact. If you were to turn to first Timothy two five, you would see it says there is one God. The Bible goes on to say in John 17 three that God is the only true God. We pause in a moment like this and just ask if there is only one God, and this God has declared himself truthfully within Scripture. What about all the other gods that people worship? Are they really God? What does the Bible say about that? When I come to a moment like that, there is much need to be truthful and honest.
But pause with the most respect for the individual in which we speak to. Because if you believe that there is only one God in this world, and yet you don’t take the opportunity to acknowledge before the people that there is only one God. We do an extreme disservice to them. One of the most loving things that you can do for someone is to share truth. But the way in which we do it is out of respect and love for that individual. We believe, as Galatians says, the truth sets us free. We look what Scripture says about other gods, those who worship anything other than the one true God. Second Corinthians 1114 says, Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. I know when Halloween comes around, the devil looks real scary, right? He’s got horns, he’s got pitchforks, he’s got a spiky tail thing. He’s red like he’s been on fire. You don’t want to dream about that. When the Bible talks about Satan, it’s a totally different picture than that evil, ugly looking Satan. The Bible talks about Satan. It is a beautiful picture. In fact, when it refers to Satan within the scriptures, it tells us that Satan was God’s most glorious angel to be created. And when he appears to you, he doesn’t want to do so in such a way that it’s abrupt and you recognize that Satan is presenting, presenting to you a lie or trying to deceive you.
He does it as an angel of light because he wants to trick you. The Bible tells us in Second Corinthians that Satan disguises himself as that angel of light, desiring for us to be deceived from the truth of God’s Word. In first Corinthians 1019. What do I mean, then, that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? Paul’s debating with the believers, telling him, you know, idols aren’t even a big deal. There’s no power in that idolatry. But it goes on to say no. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. Think about what Paul’s saying about people who are gathering in other religious assemblies to worship God, who isn’t the true God. He’s calling them demons. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 17, they sacrificed to demons who were not God. We say that very soberingly, but to us it’s a reminder. You know, we’re going through this series on what I believe, and this is a very headstrong series. We’re taking God’s word and, man, we are just packing it into to a brief 45 minute message and trying to get the foundation of what we believe is people, so that we’re not deceived, and so that we become correct communicators of God’s truth.
But what we’re after isn’t just information. What we want is transformation. For God to take the truth of of His Word in our lives, and to morph us in the image that he desires, and to look at people who worship other gods in a loving way. Acknowledge, you know, the one true God desires to know you and for you to know him. There is only one God. As we look at the concept of being one God, we also recognize within the Trinity that it describes itself in three distinct persons. When we look in the Bible and we look throughout history, no one, no one fails to acknowledge that the Father is God. There is no belief system in there that does in the world that doesn’t teach that the Father is God. So this is a pretty moot point to make. But if you want a verse on that, it tells us in first Corinthians eight six there is but one God the Father. Okay. The Father is God. We look beyond that in the the realm of Jesus. The Bible continues to remind us that Jesus Himself is also God, and there are multiple places within Scripture that shares that to us. I just picked a few and put them on the screen. But if you begin, even in the book of John, the very first chapter, it says in the beginning, just like Genesis starts in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
Referring to Jesus. And then says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This word, who is God lives as flesh. It is Jesus. John 858 Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was born, I am. Jesus refers back to the the reference in Exodus chapter three when when Moses comes before God and says, who do I tell the people who sent me? And God says, tell them that I am sent you. And Jesus shows up on the scene and says, that same God who appeared to Moses, it’s me before Abraham was, I am. And the Jewish response was, therefore they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus ran and hid himself. And John chapter ten and verse 33, the Jews answered him, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. And because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God. Thomas, after the resurrection of Jesus, when he put his fingers in Jesus’s side and in his hands, it tells us in John 2028, Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. It’s important to recognize that when God in Scripture says that you shall worship Him and Him alone and serve no other God, and yet Jesus in these passages of Scripture are allowing the disciples to worship him, acknowledging that He is God.
First John 520. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. The Bible goes on and tells us about the Holy Spirit. Holy spirit many times is perceived by some people to simply be a force rather than a being. When I was a young kid, I grew up poor for a little while. One of my favorite things to do on Halloween was was to be the ghost. But I couldn’t just be any ghost. It was the Holy Ghost who to me, he was a person. Scripture declares that the same way for us, he is not a force, he is a person. Ephesians 430. He is grieved. A force can’t be grieved like gravity is a force. You can’t grieve or gravity can’t grieve. The Holy Spirit can grieve over our sin. Acts 751 you can resist him. He guides us, but we as people can resist him. Hebrews 1029. He can be insulted. Electricity is a force, but it can’t be insulted. But the but the Holy Spirit can be insulted. Second Corinthians three 1718. It tells us the Lord is the spirit. Lord is a title for the name of God, and He is spirit.
In John 424 it says, it says to that God is spirit very plainly, just simply says, God is spirit. In acts chapter five and verse three, we’re dealing with the early church, and they’re donating and giving all of their finances to promote the gospel and going forth into this world. And it says, But Peter said to Ananias, and Sapphira says, But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of your land? Ananias and Sapphira were believers who who sold their their land and said that they were going to give all the money from this land to the church. But what they did was they sold it for a particular price and hoarded some of the money, and went around telling everybody that they gave all of that money from the land and says, why have you lied to look what it says to the Holy Spirit. And in verse four, while it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after you sold it, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived, conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Verse three it tells us you’ve lied to the Holy Spirit. And in verse, verse four, it reminds us that who they’ve lied to by lying to the Holy Spirit is God. We see within the Bible both the father, Son and Holy Spirit are referred to as God.
But in addition to that, not only do we see that each one is separately called within Scripture God, we also find within the Bible they function distinctly from one another, and they function at the same exact time as one another. In Genesis chapter one, there’s a section of Scripture that was translated by a group of Jewish rabbis. When the Jews would write a commentary about the scripture, it was referred to as a Targum and Jew. The great Jewish minds at the time would get together, and they would write a Targum or a commentary for us to understand what a passage of Scripture was talking about. And the 200th century BC, before Jesus was on the face of this earth, they came to Genesis chapter one, and this is how they defined it in the beginning by the firstborn, who is Jesus. God the Father created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. 200 years before Christ walked on the face of this earth, the Targum Neofiti describes to us a triune Trying God working to create our universe. The Bible goes on and defines not only in this passage do we see a triune God at work, but God is described through all sorts of sections of Scripture, working as a triune being, simultaneously together in harmony with one another.
Isaiah 48 and verse 16, it says, Jesus repeats, The Father has sent me, and he will send the spirit. Referring to the Trinity. Isaiah 61 and verse one. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me talking about Jesus, because the Lord the father has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me, Jesus, to bind up the brokenhearted. It’s an important passage of Scripture in Isaiah 61 referring to the Trinity, because in Luke chapter four, Jesus shows up to the temple and he opens up when it’s his turn to share from the Old Testament. He opens up to Isaiah 61. He reads it out loud, and then he shuts the book and sits down and says that today is being fulfilled in me. Jesus shared within the temple. The triune God. And Luke chapter one and verse 35. The Trinity shows and appears before the birth of Jesus in Matthew chapter three. The Trinity appears at the baptism of Jesus says. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him. And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. In this passage of Scripture, we see Jesus baptized the spirit descending upon him, and the father speaking helps us to understand when people have difficulty in asking the question, well, how? How in the world does? If God is God, how in the world does Jesus pray to the father? God has one being, but he exists in three persons, One being choosing to function within father, son and spirit, each unique before one another, each having their own roles in which they carry out.
But they are one. God tells us in John chapter ten and verse 30, I and the father are one. I’ve seen people come to this passage of Scripture and they say, well, yeah, Jesus says he is one with the father. But what he really means is that he’s one in purpose, right? He didn’t mean like he was God and the Father is God, and they’re both God, and they’re one at being God. What he meant is just that they’re they’re they’re one and what they want to accomplish. I’d say that’s a pretty cool interpretation. I mean, I’m the same way. I like to think about God the Father and what he wants us to accomplish in this world. And I want to be one for that purpose. But the problem with that definition is the rest of the verses. He goes on to say that the Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Why in the world if Jesus has one purpose, that should be what the Jewish people are wanting to do too, right? If we ask them, what do you what do you want to accomplish? We want to accomplish what the father wants to accomplish.
Well, Jesus wants to accomplish the same thing. You guys are on the same team. Why don’t you just walk hand in hand together? But the Jews are picking up stones to stone. Jesus, why in the world is this happening? Verse 32 it says, Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from the father. For which of them are you stoning me? Jesus is saying, yeah, guys, if this was just one on purpose, right? 33 The Jews answered him, for a good work. We don’t stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God. So the Jewish mind was very clear on what Jesus was sharing. In this passage of Scripture. Jesus is saying, I am God and the Father is God. And the Jewish mind got that complex look again in their faces. How does that work? There’s only one God. We’re monotheistic. Are you talking about multiple gods now. I mean, because if you are, you deserve to die. Are you saying you, being a man are equal with God? Because if you are, you deserve to die. How do we work all this together? There is only one God, and Jesus is God, and the Father is God, and. And the Spirit is God.
Let me just say one of the false beliefs that’s often taught in, in, uh, or understood about the Trinity that’s incorrect. Is that the belief of tritheism? The Bible teaches that there are three gods. There aren’t three gods. The Bible teaches there is one God, and he functions in three persons. There isn’t. There aren’t three gods in Scripture. One of the other false beliefs that we find is called Modalism. Modalism teaches that God is like the morphing God. He’s sort of like a transformer on steroids because he doesn’t just turn into a a person in a car, but he’s also got the spirit. He can do three things right. So God pops up as the father and he, like, transforms, transforms, however that works. And he becomes he becomes Jesus. And then he transforms again. And now he’s the ghost right? Strike. The Bible says to us in the passages of Scripture we see it. We saw it in Matthew. Excuse me, sign up. Matthew chapter three is that the father and the son and the spirit don’t morph. They can exist simultaneously at the same place. That way, when God is creating creation, he can say, let us make man in our image. And then the singularity. He can say in the image of God, he created them. They are one. There is one God existing in three persons, and the next thought is they are each fully and equally God. And Jesus shares with us in John 1030 that he and the father are one more than one in purpose.
They are one in being. They are one. What we find as we study the Trinity further is that each aspect of the Trinity fulfills a purpose for our lives, even in your salvation. Do you realize that you can come to the father in prayer because of what Jesus has done on the cross, through the power of the spirit? In the Old Testament, they would go to the temple and worship because the presence of God’s Spirit dwelled there. The Shekinah glory. But when Jesus died on the cross, the temple was torn in two. The veil was rent, and for the first time the Spirit of God could dwell within all of us. Because of what Jesus has done. As we place our faith in him, because of what Jesus has done on the cross and the shedding of blood, the Spirit of God comes to dwell within us, and we no longer have to go to the temple to worship. We become that temple, able to go before God the Father at any time in our lives. Amen. The Trinity is always at work in our lives. It says in First Peter chapter one and verse two, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood. May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
Because the Trinity is working in harmony with one another. Paul or excuse me, Peter gives us that promise at the very end. The grace and peace of God in the fullest measure can be lived out in our lives. The Trinity is a glorious thing when we understand it for the way in which the Bible declares it. God is always at work in our lives. One of the common false teachings about the Trinity is Subordinationism. It means this that there is the father, but then there’s the son, and he’s under the father because he’s not equal to the father. And then there’s the spirit who came after Jesus, and he’s kind of below Jesus. And that’s not the way the Bible declares. John chapter ten and verse 30, Jesus said, I and the father are one. We are equal. We are equivalent to one another. It’s not one third God, one third God, one third God. All of them are God, 100% Fully God. There is not one underneath the other. There’s not one above the other. They are equal to one another in their persons. But there is only one God. One of the most difficult things that people have in understanding Scripture is the way that God has defined himself within the Bible. Can I say before I share these verses with you, that when God gives himself a title, it’s not as if it’s an absolute title? Usually, as we give an example of God at some degree, at some point an example will break down in its very definition and meaning.
Sometimes when we look at the way that God has defined himself, when in Scripture, when we say that God is 100% like this, we get a false concept in understanding the way God is communicated to us through the Bible, especially with the word Son and Father. As we see in Scripture, when Jesus says that he is the son, we begin to assume then that must mean that he was physically born from God if he is God’s son. And the same with the father. If God the Father is referred to as the father, and that is a exact title for him, that means he would have had to have given birth to a child and that would have been the son. The problem with that definition is it breaks down as you study the rest of Scripture. God, in describing himself as a son, is simply a title for us to understand the way that he’s coming to this world. It actually comes from Daniel chapter seven. And and so the people at his time and that he was the promised Messiah. It was a prophetic fulfillment. When you look at the word son, as it’s communicated within the New Testament, it adds a whole new understanding to the way that we define son in our English language today. In Mark chapter three and verse 17, he gave the names, whatever that is, which means the sons of thunder.
Jesus is talking about the J. Excuse me, John and James, the sons of Thunder. They go into a village, and this village won’t listen to their message. And they say to God, you know what, God? Just strike them all dead. Kill them all. Slaughter the world. And Jesus looks at him and refers to them as the Sons of Thunder. Now let me just say, so far in history I have not seen thunder give birth to a person. Right. Sons of thunder, in this passage of Scripture represents the essence of what thunder is. Their character reflected a thunderous character. As a young kid, you ever upset dad and saw the thunder? James and John. John chapter 17. In verse 12, not one of them perished, but the son of perdition. This is referring to Judas. Judas is communicated in the Bible as the Son of Hell. Hell does not give birth. But Judas represented the essence of what hell was in his life. Acts chapter four and verse 36. Our good friend Barnabas, called Barnabas by the apostles, which translate means the son of encouragement. Barnabas was an encourager. When you see the name son of tagged with in scriptures before an individual, it reflects the characteristic of what that person is about. And when you look within the Bible in John chapter three and verse 16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
That phrase, only begotten, refers to the uniqueness of who Jesus is the only, the only begotten son. It means in Hebrew or excuse me in Greek, the kind or class. This individual, born in the flesh for us, is the only one of his kind. He’s the only kind or class that relates to God. Matter of fact, Colossians goes on to say he is the exact representation of his being. If you want to see God, the essence of who God is and everything that God is Look at Jesus. Refer to Jesus as the Son of God. We’re saying is the characteristics of who God is is totally reflected in who Christ is because Christ is God. And what about the word father within the Bible? God is referred to as the father multiple times. Do you know if you return? Would turn to the Old Testament and just look at the passages in which God is referred to as the father? It only happens three times in the Old Testament. It happens plenty of times in the New Testament, only three times in the Old Testament. Out of those three times, it happens in the Old Testament. Two of those times refer to Jesus. One of the most famous ones is found in Isaiah nine six. It tells us, I didn’t put it up here for you. I guess it tells us that unto us a child is born.
Let me skip. There it is. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest upon his shoulders. And his name will be called wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. We know who we’re talking about in that verse, right? The government’s going to rest upon his shoulders. That sounds like Jesus. A son will be born unto us. That sounds like Jesus. We talk about the word father. It could reflect the nature of Jesus, or it could reflect the nature of the one we refer to as the father. Something else interesting also comes from the passages of Matthew. Jesus couldn’t be born of the father because it tells us in Matthew 124, the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Luke 135 the angel answered and said to him, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason the holy child shall be called the Son of God. The Bible tells us it was the Holy Spirit involved in Jesus coming to this earth. God isn’t Three gods. God isn’t a morphing god. There is only one God. The Bible tells us if we look at this definition one more time, there is one God, period. And he exists in three distinct persons period, each of which are fully and equally God.
When you read about God and you’ve got the holy constipation coming on you. Um, it’s good in his incommunicable attributes to pause and just say, God, I stand in awe. And as God defines himself for us to understand him as he’s truthfully communicated himself to us. Have you ever prayed this prayer? God, I just want to know you more deeply. And God, I want to know everything about you. Can I encourage you this morning when when you come before God? And if that is your heart Don’t get lazy when it comes to the topic of things like the Trinity. Be honest with what Scripture says to us and don’t just pass it off. Because God, I think, explained to us as a trying being, has allowed our minds to go as deep as we could possibly conceive. The idea of who God is, but go there because God has revealed himself to you. What does all this mean to us this morning? God is known and we can know him. We can know him personally. We can relate to him intimately. Who God is is the biggest question you will ever define in your life. And what you choose to do with that is based on what you believe. What you believe is important. When you think about the idea of the Trinity. It’s an important for us as people just to look and reflect on the Trinity at work for our lives and for the life in which we live.
And this week, if I were to say it’s summertime is always difficult for me because by the end of the summer I am I am worn out. And we just got back from three weeks of camp and we had a booth on Saturday and and more to come in the weeks ahead of us. And so I just grab hands, hold on. And by the end of the summer, we are we’re ready for a new vacation. And and this week was a pretty difficult week and things that I had to handle. You know, when you look at the Trinity, it is a very comforting thing to examine in relational life. We in ourselves should desire to experience the Trinitarian life that’s displayed through the father, son, and spirit because it’s in the Trinity that we see a loving God at work. It’s in the Trinity that we see a community coming together in both father, son and spirit working through that love. It’s in that Trinity that we find openness And God has no secrets as the Trinity. When sin came into the Garden of Eden, the first thing that happened is that communication died. There was a separation in man between God, and there was a separation in husband and wife. But in the Trinity there is no secrets. It’s open. The Trinitarian life is humble. You look within Scripture. Jesus reflected time and time again.
I’m here to do the will of the father. When you read in Hebrews chapter one, God the Father refers back to Jesus, elevating him in his position of importance. There is humility acted upon within the Trinity because you think in our own lives, if we just had that concern for one another, the way the Triune God works together. What a wonderful world, man. We could sing every morning that Louis Armstrong song, and it would be the truth, right? The Trinity is humble. The Trinity is submissive I think most importantly that the Trinity is happy. God is a happy, joyful God. He created us in this world. He gave us the example of the sun reflecting back to the father of how that Trinity works, and just lets us know as people we can have. As it said in first Peter chapter one, we can have that peace and that joy that comes through him. That’s what God desires for us as we consider the depths of who God is. Time and time again, through his character, through his nature, we see such a beautiful, harmonious love that it should draw us as people to look at that being reflected to us in our lives, and seek and desire that in our own relationships in this world to God and with one another. That’s what the Trinity ultimately means for us. God is at work in each of us through His Son, by the power of His Spirit. We can come to him at any moment in this world. Let’s close in the word of prayer.