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How Can Three Be One? - Matthew 28:16-20

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1+1+1=1. Is this new math? No, it's the doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. At the very heart of the Judeo-Christian faith is the belief that there is only One God. Yet the Bible clearly teaches the plurality within the Godhead—three persons who are distinct from one another yet perfectly One in essence. What are we to make of all this? Why is it important? And more fundamentally, how should it affect us personally?

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2/16/2003
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How Can Three Be One?
Matthew 28:16-20
Skip Heitzig
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1+1+1=1. Is this new math? No, it's the doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. At the very heart of the Judeo-Christian faith is the belief that there is only One God. Yet the Bible clearly teaches the plurality within the Godhead—three persons who are distinct from one another yet perfectly One in essence. What are we to make of all this? Why is it important? And more fundamentally, how should it affect us personally?
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Rediscovering Our Foundations

Rediscovering Our Foundations

We live in an age where truth has become a relative term. But the Bible leaves no room for doubt when it comes to the absolute nature of truth. Unfortunately, our culture is vastly biblically illiterate. In this series, Pastor Skip Heitzig gets back to the roots of our faith, looking at what the Bible has to say about God, Christ, the Trinity, mankind, the church, heaven, and hell. Learn to stand on a firm foundation in the midst of an unstable culture.

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Outline

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  1. Criticism of the Triune God
    A. The Criticism Semantically
    B. The Criticism Religiously
  2. Confirmation of the Triune God
    A. Scriptural Confirmation
    B. Historical Confirmation
  3. Connection with the Triune God (How can we relate personally to the Trinity?)

Transcript

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Good evening. How are you tonight? Well good.

Would you open your Bibles to Matthew 28 and having done that why don't you welcome all those who are listening by radio around the United States right now to our fellowship. (cheering) Our little way to make you feel welcome those who are listening. After the resurrection Jesus got his disciples together and "he (in verse 16_ the eleven disciples went way into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him they worshipped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father. And of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age."

There was a prisoner who was put in solitary confinement and his cell was pitch black. To relieve boredom he had a little marble he'd toss against the wall and it would hit the wll, hit the floor, go around the room and he'd listen for it. And it would stop and he'd retrieve it. Then he'd do it all over again. There came a time when he got bored with relieving his boredom that way. He decided to try something new, ne thought, "I'm going to throw this marble up in the air and I'm going to try to catch it." Of course, keep in mind it's pitch black in the room. He throws it up but he misses. So he waits, listens. He's going to let it hit the floor and then he's going to find it. No wound. It never hit the ground. And it struck him as odd. He thought about it and the more he thought about it, the more disturbed he got. He got more and more disturbed. What happened to the marble? I threw it up, why didn't it come down. Did it vanish into thin air? It finally disturbed him so much that he went made and he died. The guards that came in to remove his body from the cell, as they came in the door was opened, and the light struck something that caught the guard's eye, he looked up and he saw a marble caught in a spider's web. And he thought, "Now isn't that the craziest thing? How on earth did that spider manage to get the marble all the way up there?"

You know, we all have marbles in our lives. Those imponderable mysteries that we just can't see, there's not enough light, it's dark, we can't get a good grip on it, a good handle. Tonight we're going to look at, briefly obviously in the time that we have, what I would consider is the greatest theological marble: The Trinity, the triune God. How can three be one? Have you ever grappled with that? Well, you're not the first one. So many have. One British theologians said, "The most difficult subject in Christian theology is the trinity. By the end of the day you may feel like you're stil out at sea. Billy Graham said, "The Bible teaches that God is but one but he is manifested in three persons. Don't ask me to explain it. I can't. It's impossible for me. I accept it by faith." Mortimer J. Adler who is the editor emeritus of Encyclopedia Britannica, a believer said, "The greatest mistake anyone can make is to think that they can fully understand these mysteries, including the trinity." Even Augustin, who was quite a theologian, pondered this day after day and it almost drove him nuts. And one day trying to figure it out, he got worse. In fact, he said he was worse at the end than at the beginning when he just had a few questions. One day he was walking on the beach and he notices a little boy taking a pail of water and pouring it into a hole and he said, "You man what are you doing?" He said, "I'm going to take that ocean and put it in that hole." A light went on in Augustin's mind. He said, "Oh, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to take infinite God and stuff him in finite brain. I can't do it. He's much bigger than I am." There comes a point where I have to, as Billy Graham said, accept this by faith.

The triune nature of God is tough to grasp. But it is not incomprehensible. After all, God understands it. And that seemed to be enough for the early church, the apostles, some in the postapostolic era, certainly Jesus. And le me just say right off the bat, don't lose sleep if you can't unravel the truth of the trinity.

Last month, in fact it was just about a month ago exactly, it will be tomorrow, when there was a full moon out. I went outside and I checked it out and up where I live it's beautiful, you can see, because there's no lights around. And you can look up and you can see the moon with the naked eye but you can't see the details of the moon. You don't see the dark side of the moon, you don't see the craters, the valleys, etcetera. But a few days later when it reached the phase called "the waning gibbus," I took a telescope out and checked it out. And you can see at that phase, with a little bit less reflection of the sun, you see the craters. You see the relief. You see the texture of the moon, the high places, the low places. And I think that knowing God is sort of like looking at a full moon. You're aware he's there, you can see a little bit. You understand in part. But you don't get it all. And you can look at God through the telescope of scripture and you get a closer view, a revelation, something you'd never seen before. But I think even after that, there still reaches a point where God is so infinite and we are finite that we never see quite clear enough this side of heaven.

When it comes to the trinity, we must be careful that we don't trivialize God by reducing him to a formula. I know we're tempted to do that whether we say he's like an apple or an egg or water, all those funny little formulas for the Trinity, but we never walk away totally satisfied with them, do we? I never do. And I think it's simply again, it's finite man's attempt to grasp this infinite being. There has been throughout history criticism of the trinity, as with any truth there's always a critic, whether by ignorance or blindness, there is an attack of a critic against a biblical teaching.

There was a minister who was opening his mail and he opened one letter and in the envelope was a single sheet of paper folded up. He unfolded the sheet of paper and there was one word in capital letters, "Fool." Fool written across it. Somebody obviously wanted to get a message to this guy. Fool. Next Sunday when he got in his pulpit, he announced to his congregation, he said, "You know I've known many people who have written letters and forgot to put their name on it. But this week I got a letter where a guy signed his name but forgot to write the letter. There have been many fools throughout history who have denied God by denying the trinity. Because it is paradoxical. It is incomprehensible to the human mind. We don't quite understand it and sow hen we don't understand something fully we begin to attack it sometimes. The criticism has been unfortunately over something as simple as wording, semantics. It goes like this, "Well you never read the word trinity in the Bible, do you?" I don't. "And so there must not be a trinity." Well so what? So there's no word trinity. There's no word Bible in the Bible, is there? But I own one. The words rapture aren't in the Bible. Second coming, that's not in the Bible. The word millennium isn't in the Bible but the teaching of all those things is plain and clear in the Bible as is the teaching of the trinity. You see the word trinity is not a biblical term, it's a theological term. That is, it's this systematized formulation given to us of what the Bible teaches. Where do we get the term trinity? It came from a guy named Tertulian, about 200 AD, trinitos in Latin. He's the guy that coined the term, that's where it first came into the church. And simply because there's no verbal expression of something, you can't deny the biblical principle just because you don't have the exact wording or verbal expression.

Charles Spurgeon said, "To have a gospel without the trinity is like having a rope of sand that cannot hold together. Then Satan can overrun it. But give me a gospel with the Trinity and the might of hell cannot prevail against it. No man can any more overthrow it than a bubble could split a rock or feather could break in halves a mountain."

So the criticism has come on the basis of semantics but it goes deeper than that. There are religious groups that have traditionally come against the teaching of trinity. They're anti-trinitarian groups. Now something that I notice when I read the New Testament: It was never really an issue to the apostles. I never read the apostles going in here, "Time out, Jesus. Time out. What's this Father, Son, Holy Spirit bit?" Or, in the upper room when Jesus said, "I'm going to pray the Father and he's going to send you another comforter, the Spirit of truth, he's going to be with you, he'll abide with you." "Now, wait a minute. Time out." It never seemed to be an issue with them. In fact, it wasn't an issue until a few hundred years after Christ and I'll tell you why in just a few minutes. But they were there, they listened to Jesus say what he just said. In fact, a rabbi, Paul didn't seem to have a problem with it. Over in Acts chapter 20, Paul is saying good-bye to the elders at Ephesus and as he's there on the beach before they all get together and have a hug and they weep in their departure. In verse 25 of Acts 20, Paul says, "Indeed now I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God will see my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed therefore (now watch this, watch what he does, in one sentence) Take heed therefore to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has mad you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood." He takes the trinity and he mixes it all together in his farewell statement to them. The Holy Spirit, he has made you overseers. The church is the flock of God which God has purchased with his own blood. Obviously meaning through Jesus Christ his Son. Now I don't want to bore you by going back through all of the historical attacks, whether it's monarchianism in the second century or the Arian heresy which I mentioned some weeks ago, Arianism and the Patristic era, or during the Reformation the Socinians or Hagle and his philosophy or Carl Arth and his neoorthodox theology. But all of these attacks throughout history get recycled. It's really the same stuff, the same arguments, they get recycled and passed down through history that is still with us today. It's repetitive.

Story about another minister, he was a visiting evangelist and he preached a sermon from this pastor's pulpit and after the sermon somebody met this visiting evangelist in the foyer of the church and said, "That's the worst sermon I've ever heard in my life." It took this guy back and he went and told the pastor, he was shaken by it, "Hey this guy just told me in your church that what I just said was the worst sermon he ever heard in his life." The guy said, "Oh don't worry about this guy. Don't take him seriously. You see he's not really responsible for what he says, he has no original thought of his own, he's only repeating what everybody else says." And that's what I feel happens with attacks that come from anti-trinitarians against those of who believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. One of the hallmark characteristics of a cult is their denial or their inadequate view of the triune God. And they just repeat what has been said throughout history, same accusation. It goes like this, "Well you know the trinity never really developed during the biblical times, it developed hundreds of years after, the church became corrupted. That's because it was never an issue to Jesus, never an issue to the apostles, never an issue to Paul, never really an issue in the postapostolic era. It's just that it became formulated, formulated in a creed hundreds of years later because people started attacking it. And as people started attacking it, they said, "you know we've got to get together and formulate what the Bible says on the triune nature of God. And so all of these attacks throughout history are still with us today. But they're not called monarchianism or socinionism, they're called Jehovah's Witnesses, they're called Mormons, they're called Unitarians, they're called Oneness Pentecostal or The Way International; all antitrinitarian groups. Some are as arrogant enough to say, "The church has been wrong for eighteen hundred years til we came along and we're here to set them straight." Perhaps for a more relevant look at it, Muslims deny obviously the trinity. In fact, the trinity is not only illogical to a Muslim, to believe in the trinity is the one major sin that makes a person an infidel. According to the Koran, "Infidels now are they who say God is the Messiah, the son of Mary." And according to the Koran, God will be merciful to adulterers and liars but not Trinitarians. In fact, such deserve hell in Sero 5 of the Koran, "Whoever shall join other gods with God, God shall forbid him in the garden and his abode shall b e the firs." And the Koran continues, "The Messiah, the son of Mary is but an apostle." Now do you know that culture making inroads into the church today and do you know that Islam is the fastest growing religion on earth? And no wonder, if the church doesn't know what it believes about the trinity. How many Christians have heard an entire sermon about the Trinity?

One veteran Jehovah's Witness said, "I have never before met a Trinitarian who actually seemed to believe the doctrine." You get the average person at the door and someone who know how to hammer them well enough, pushed them into a corner, it's like, "Well I guess you're right."

So let's look then at the confirmation of the triune God. And let me just refer back to what we've already done. We have spent weeks looking at the deity of Christ, the personhood and the deity of the Holy Spirit. We have seen that in the New Testament, Jesus was called God even though some critics say he never was. He was seen and referred to as God on several occasions. I don't know what Bible they read when they say that. After all, Thomas knelt down did he not and say, "My Lord and my God." And Jesus accepted his worship. Jesus claimed to forgive sins and his enemies said, "Nobody can forgive sins except God," and Jesus had no argument with that. Jesus claimed pre-existence. He said, "Before Abraham was, I am." And though a Jehovah Witness will say today, "Jesus never claimed to be God, I don't know where you get that." Even Jesus' enemies knew he claimed to be God, because they picked up stones and Jesus said, "For what good work do you stone me?" And they said, "Not for a good work but because you being a man continually make yourself God."

Then we've also seen that the Holy Spirit is called God, Acts chapter 5. We saw that last week and a couple weeks back. Peter said, "You haven't lied to man but you've lied to God because you've lied to the Holy Spirit." We saw that the Holy Spirit possesses attributes of omnipresence and omniscience. But there's still that naggin question: How can three be one? I mean isn't the basic premise of the Bible is that God is one? So let's see how this is confirmed by the scripture. And perhaps it would be best instead of turning to a whole bunch of texts, just writing them down for you own reference. You know, Israel was repeatedly warned against polytheism, the worship of many gods. God said, "You're going into a land and the people around you believe in all sorts of crazy gods, many gods. You've got god of the sun, god of the moon, god of the fire, god of the earth, god of the pond, god of the stream, every, all kind of gods. The Lord your God is one is the basic premise. In fact, every morning and evening the Hebrews recited and still do the schmah. Deuteronomy 6:4 schmah Israel, Yahweh elohim, Yahweh ached. It was revised, Schmah Israel, adonai elohenu, adonai echad, The Lord our God is one. The very words that they used are telling. God, elohim, Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning elohim (god) created the heavens and the earth. The word elohim is a plural word. It's a masculine plural word that speaks of plurality in unity. It's not singular, that would be el. It's not even dual, that would be alla. This is elohim, it's plurality, unity in plurality. And that's seen is it not? Just a few verses down where in verse 26 and 27 of Genesis 1, "Then God (elohim) said, 'Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.' And so God created him in his own image." Here's my question: Who's God talking to? Is he bored, is he talking to himself? Well he is talking in the godhead, in the Trinitarian. He's not talking to angles, Hebrews 1 says angels never created the heavens and the earth or helped God do it. The pivotal text is the one I mentioned, Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear O Isrel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." The word one, echad in Hebrew. That's what every child learns when he is a little kid, echad stine shalosh arba, it's how to count. The word echad does mean one in isolation but one in unity. You never find in the Bible the word echad, one meaning a stark singularity but always a unity. For instance, one bunch of grapes. One people called the people of Israel. Or one couple. When Eve was brought to Adam, "For this reason," God said, "a man will leave his father and mother and be joined unto his wife and the two shall become (echad) one flesh." Now does that mean that they're not two separate people any longer? No. Does that mean they actually morph into this one being? And I've met couples that look alike after many years, but I don't think that's the idea here. It's not the idea. The idea is that in marriage there is unity in their plurality. They are echad, it's one couple. It's one family.

The trinity is seen again in Isaiah chapter 6, "Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' Who will I send, who will go for us? It's God is speaking. Isaiah predicted the Messiah as one born into this world yet called everlasting God, or the mighty God the everlasting Father. We see throughout the Bible things called theophanies or Christophanies, the seeming appearance of Christ in physical form even in the Old Testament. We see the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters at creation, coming on ceftain ones to anoint them. We just read in Matthew the baptismal formula: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paul, a rabbi, a Jewish rabbi, growing up with a monotheistic viewpoint, God is one. This rabbi Paul converted to Christ gave this creed, this benediction in II Corinthians 13, "May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." It's virtually throughout the whole Bible. You know somebody once said that if all, all who profess to be Christians would read their Bibles at one time, it would be the biggest duststorm in history. And I think that really is the problem. We've got to go back to the Bible. We've got to actually read the Bible, novel thought. But I believe and I've seen that virtually all the ignorance about God comes from the lack of reading what the Bible says. Jesus was right, he said to the leaders, "You err because you don't know the scriptures nor the power of God." I think that could be said of some today.

There is a historical confirmation as well, the Bible is replete with it, there are many many many other instances I just didn't go through, we have done so in the past. There is a historical confirmation. You know many are unaware of this, that the trinity, the triune nature of God has always been defended and upheld throughout church history. Now cults deny this, because they don't know their history. Sort of like the teacher who asked the kids in her class, "What are the Phoenecians famous for?" And one little boy said, "Blinds." He didn't know his history, he didn't pass. And those who deny the godhead are those who do not know church history. Let me give you a sampling of it, Clement of Rome, 96 AD formulated all three members of the godhead into a single oath. He said, "As God lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and as the Holy Spirit lives." Ignatirus in 107 AD used the formula for the trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Hermos during the second century spoke of one God existing in three separate persons. Justin Marter in the second century defended the veneration that the church gave at that time to the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Then there was Ironeus during the second century, probably the greatest theologian after the apostolic era. And here was a guy who spent time arguing against, defending the church against an attack, some of you may have heard of, called gnosticism. And in defending the Gnostic beliefs that were trying to come into the church, he also articulated the doctrine of the trinity saying among other things, God the Father, the word Jesus Christ our Lord who was made among men visible and tangible, and the Holy Spirit who at the end of the age was poured out in a new way.

Then I mentioned at the beginning of this study that guy named Tertulian, late second century, early third century. He's the guy that coined the phrase trinitos, trinity, three in one, triune God. And he also came up with another term he applied to each person, each member of the godhead: persona. Trinitos et persona, the persons individually of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, coequal and coeternal the Father, Son and the Spirit.

Years later, and we mentioned this some weeks ago, the Nicean Creed was mentioned in the video that you just heard. 325 AD there was that guy that came up who denied the trinity, denied the deity of Christ, denied the personhood of the Holy Spriit. And so 300 guys, theologians, got together and decided, "We need to formulate this creed." And they did, the Nicean creed.

There's even an ancient symbol and some of you have seen it if you have a New King James Bible, it used to be right on the edge here but it's usually a couple pages in from the front called a triquetra. It's this little triangular, in Latin it means three cornered. And it was an ancient symbol that was picked up by the church and used as early as the 8th century AD to speak about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, these three interwoven arcs that are inseparable and equal. And it became the symbol picked up for this version of the Bible.

So, today if somebody comes along and denies that the trinity exists, the are denying the Old Testament, the New Testament and they are assuming the most arrogant position of all saying, "Christians have always been wrong for two thousand years. I'm here to enlighten you." They're denying scripture and they're denying history.

You know what? The problem can't be resolved in our finite minds. There is a thing that one theologian refers to as an antimone, something against human reason, where you have two things that seem like contradictions, there are truths that are held in tension, they seem like contradictions but both are true conclusions. I'll give you and example in science and physics: light. We can show that light demonstrates itself to be wavelength radiation. We can also see that light is particle radiation. But it's not apparent to us how something can be both particle and wavelength at the same time but we know they are. It's not apparent how there is a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is called and worshipped as God, the Son is called God and worshipped as God and the Holy Spirit is called God and worshipped as God. There's three persons but it's one God. But it is.

And you know what it's like, it's like a suspension bridge, you have this truth over here and this truth over here and they're pulling against each other and it's the very fact that they pull against each other that it holds the bridge up. You need something pulling in opposite directions. If you remove one it will fall. If you remove the other it will fall. So let it stand.

Now I want to end just by giving you what I call your connection with the triune God. What does it all mean to us personally? We can speak at an arm's length and be theological about it and say, "See, that's what the Bible says. We're right." But I always like to ask a question when I read anything in the Bible. Here's the question: So what? Isn't that good question, a deep theological question? So what? But I ask that every week. What does the fact that God is triune: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What does that have to do with you and with me? How do I relate to the triune God today?

Would you just look with me over, I know you've read it, but let me refresh you again in John chapter 14, just turn over there. We've spent some time digging through this area of scripture. You might want to go back over it after tonight and just read it devotionally. I'm impressed that Jesus never taught theology directly. He always taught theology indirectly. What was of paramount importance to Jesus was practicality. What does this mean to these guys that I'm discipling? And so he said, verse 15, "If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father and he will give you another Helper that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him but you know him. For he dwells with you, he will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you." Verse 22, Judas (not Iscariot, another guy) said, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said, "If anyone loves me he will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him." Don't you love how Jesus says, "Let's get back to what's important. We're going to come, We, We're all going to be with you, we're all going to climb inside of you so to speak. And we're going to dwell with you in power and in you. "He who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father who sent Me." And he keeps talking and he mentions the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You might say the Father is the planner, the Son is the provider, the Spirit is the enabler. All three have their parts.

Okay, on a practical level let me give you three things to go home with, three things that you can do I think to enhance your relationship with the triune God. Number one in awareness. In awareness. Be aware during the day. Just try that, this practicing the presence of God as Brother Lawrence used to love to call it. Be aware that there are three persons in one godhead: the Father, Son and the Spirit. And as you read the Bible start looking for the differences, for who is talked about when and what is referred to, even like in the Psalms where there are Messianic psalms yet the Holy Spirit is present. And as you do start learning how the Holy Spirit works, through history, in the world, in the church, in you. In this awareness avoid the tendency of reductionism. I mean thinking of God as just the Father only, or the Son Jesus only, or the Spirit only. Avoid that.

Awareness, number two, devotion. Devotion. You know when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he said, "Look you don't have to ask me any more to ask the Father, you can come directly to the Father. So go for it, pray, talk to the Father. And ask anything in my name." So he taught us to pray to the Father in His name. But we see that there is a variation in the Bible. For instance, Stephen when he was being stoned, he cried out, "Lord Jesus receive my spirit." And in II Corinthians Paul refers to believers as those who everywhere call upon the name of Jesus. Then in Acts 13 it says, "The Holy Spirit said to the church, Separte unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work I've called them.' And when they had fasted and prayed." So there's evidence that the church was giving glory to the Holy Spirit.

So in your awareness, in your devotion. And number three in your fellowship. In you fellowship with one another the trinity is practical. Look at it this way: The trinity, the triune God; the Father, the Son and the Spirit are like the perfect example or archetype for our love, our unity, our fellowship. That's what Jesus prayed, he said, "Father, I pray for these Christians that they may be one as we are one." May they be one as we are one. So the example for unity among the church is the trinity.

Now listen carefully to this: The ultimate reason why Christians should reconcile and resolve conflict, the ultimate reason why those married should stay together, the ultimate reason why churches should not split isn't because of legal constraints but because of Trinitarian love. "That they may be one as we are one."

So, as we close, I want to say in the midst of this question how can three be one? Let the tension remain. Get used to it. Live with it. Love it. Because it's like that suspension bridge, two truths held in tension, one pulling this way, one pulling that way and because of their force enacted the edifice stands. And just remember this, the disciples were okay with this, the apostles were okay with this, the early church was okay with this, Paul was okay with this, in the postapostolic era they were okay with it. It wasn't until there were attacks against the church that they had to formulate all these creeds.

Well there was a schoolgirl who took a test on an anatomy class and she failed. In fact she was the only girl in the calss that failed. You'll understand why she failed. This is what her test read: The human body is composed of three parts: the branium and the borax and the abominable cavity. The branium contains the brain, the borax contains the lungs, liver and living things and the abominable cavity contains the bowels of which there are five: a,e,I,o, and u." I honestly don't feel much different from that girl when it comes to comprehend a subject so vast as the godhead. Great is the mystery of godliness," Paul said, "God who is manifest in the flesh." Just the incarnation is _______, let alone the triune God. I feel we've got a marble up there, "Why didn't it come down?" Now it can drive you mad, you can go nuts. They can drag your body out. Or, you can say, "It's illogical to me but it's not incomprehensible to God. So I'll live with it." You know, the more I study the Bible, I don't know about you, but the bigger God gets and the smaller my little brain gets. You think, "Well the more you study the Bible, the smarter..." The dumber I get. And that's the way it out to be.

Heavenly Father, for our little brains on earth to try to get our thinking around this truth that is very apparent and very clear; that you are called God and worshipped as such, and yet your Son Jesus is called God and worshipped as such, and the Spirit is referred to God possessing the attributes thereof and his glorified as such. It's hard for us to figure that out. And sometimes we even go to the extreme of, "Should I stop talking to you and start talking to Jesus your Son and then to the Spirit just so that nobody will feel bad. But Lord, that really isn't the issue. And as we acknowledge who you are and glorify you as seen in the Bible, none of that really matters. Because as Paul said, "We're weak when we pray. We don't even know what we ought to pray for. But your Spirit is the one who intercedes for us." So Lord we admit our weakness. We see an apparent paradox or contradiction and yet we by faith stand and believe it. And Lord I pray that in our awareness, Father in our devotion to you and Lord in our fellowship with one another, there would be the evidence of that beautiful unity of work of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; in our families, our marriages, our church, all our relationships. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Additional Messages in this Series

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9/15/2002
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Does the Truth Really Matter?
2 Timothy 4
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Today I begin a new series I am calling Rediscovering Our Foundations. I am concerned about the vast biblical illiteracy that exists in our country in general and in our churches in particular. Truth is commonly seen by our culture as relative and not fixed. Often sentiments such as, "Well, that is your truth, but it's not my truth," are expressed by many. But if truth is absolute, then why not stand up for it? Why be embarrassed about it? What do you really believe about God, the Trinity, Christ, mankind, the church, heaven, and hell?
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9/22/2002
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Is Anybody Up There?
Hebrews 11:1-40;Romans 2:1-29
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We all remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her three friends come to approach the Great Oz. Out of the corner of their eye they notice a man pulling levers behind a curtain, working the mechanical, smoke-breathing Oz. The man then reacts by announcing, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" But how can they not? The man is the explanation for everything to them. They discovered that Oz didn't really exist! So how do we know that God exists and isn't a fabrication or projection of our own imaginations?
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9/29/2002
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The Bible - From God or From Men? - Part 1
2 Timothy 3:15-17
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In this series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, it's time to consider your own personal foundation. What is the final resting place for your cares, concerns, griefs, surprises and sorrows? Where do you turn for answers to life's deepest questions? What is your authority? How sure are you that the Bible is the inerrant and inspired Word of God? Can you articulate to others the difference between the Bible and other "sacred" religious works?
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10/6/2002
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The Bible - From God or From Men? - Part 2
2 Timothy 3:15-17
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Last week, we discovered exactly what the designation "Scripture" referred to and how books of the Bible were considered as part of the inspired text. We also learned what inspiration means and how God used humans in His process of having exactly what He wanted written down. But anyone can claim inspiration for their work. Yet how do we know that the Bible is the authentic Word of God? Moreover, how can we share with others its uniqueness so they, too, may listen to its message and apply it?
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10/13/2002
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The God Who Knows It All!
Psalm 139:1-6
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A little boy climbed his neighbor's apple tree when he saw their car leave. He didn't realize that while he was stuffing his pockets full of apples, another neighbor was watching through a pair of binoculars and saw the whole thing! God isn't spying on people, trying to catch them doing something wrong; but God is aware of everything. Such a truth has a profound effect on us: it can either be very comforting or else extremely unsettling.
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10/20/2002
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Are You a Big-Godder or a Little Godder?
Psalm 139:7-24
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11/10/2002
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Wholly Holy!
Skip Heitzig
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In this current series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, we've considered some key attributes of the God we know and love. He is omniscient (knows everything); He is omnipresent (everywhere present); He is omnipotent (operates at full power). But there is another key attribute that is seldom considered, yet is fundamentally key in understanding the Bible—God's holiness. Let's observe one man's encounter with this holy God and what it means to us.
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11/17/2002
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Good Man, Mad Man, Con Man, or God-Man?
Matthew 16:13-17
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No other person from history has generated so much controversy and speculation, as well as written literature, as Jesus Christ. Theologians, philosophers, poets and pundits have all weighed in concerning who Jesus is. What is often forgotten is that Jesus can never be overestimated! John said that the, "world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John 21:25) about His accomplishments.
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12/1/2002
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A King Among the Critters
Luke 2:1-7
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In our current series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, we've come to the person of Christ. Last time, we considered His identity; today, we contemplate His nativity. For the next few weeks, we'll look closely at Jesus' birth, His early years, ministry, and death on the cross, which was the very purpose of His birth. It's my hope that we'll all emerge with a fuller understanding of Jesus and a deeper desire to worship and serve Him. Today, let's look at the strange circumstances of His birth.
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12/8/2002
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Jesus - The Boy With a Purpose - Part 1
Luke 2:1-52; Matthew 2:1-23
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Jesus' upbringing and boyhood has been the subject of much speculation and endless controversy throughout the centuries. Myths have developed about Jesus based (interestingly enough) on what isn't written. The Bible gives us five cameo glimpses of Jesus from early boyhood to age 30. We'll look at three of these today and then two more next week. We discover that Jesus' whole life was marked with purpose.
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12/15/2002
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Jesus - The Boy With a Purpose - Part 2
Luke 2-3
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We don't give much thought to Jesus growing up, developing into adolescence and then into manhood. But of course He did. Luke is really the only New Testament author who gives us information about these early years. He speaks generally about Jesus' growth as well as specifically about Jesus' capacity as a young boy of 12. At each stage of His life, Jesus demonstrated He knew His purpose for His life on earth.
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12/22/2002
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A Lamb at the River
Matthew 3:1-17; John 1:1-51
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When Jesus turned 30, He presented Himself to the nation of Israel in public ministry. His first appearance, however, seemed so out of character for the kind of Messiah that people were anticipating. What was He doing getting baptized in a river with everyone else? John was about to find out—and so was everyone else.
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1/12/2003
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The Holy Spirit: Invisible, Personal, Powerful
John 14-16
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Today in our series Rediscovering Our Foundations, we consider the Holy Spirit. Most of us have heard of Him, but who is He exactly? What does He do? How important is the Holy Spirit to your personal life, your family life, your work or your leisure time? Perhaps A.W. Tozer was right when he said, "For multitudes of Christians profess today the Holy Spirit is not a necessity. They have learned to cheer their hearts and warm their hands at other fires." It is my sincere prayer that will change for us in the few weeks ahead.
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1/19/2003
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The Gracious and Holy Hound of Heaven
John 16:5-11
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Having understood Who the Holy Spirit is (Person, not just power; Deity, not just dignitary), we now find out what He does, specifically what He does in the world of unbelievers. Since the greatest gift God ever gave to the world was His only Son (John 3:16), it stands to reason that the greatest sin one can commit is to reject the Son (John 16:9). How does the Holy Spirit both sentence the world as prosecutor and yet lead people away from judgment? And what role do we play in all of this?
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1/26/2003
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I Need Somebody, Help! Not Just Anybody
John 14-16
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To live one's life for God in an ungodly world sounds like mission impossible, right? It would be as if we had to do it without help. But be strengthened by this thought: God never intended for us to do it alone! That's why He has provided His people a Helper, the Holy Spirit. This ever-present divine Person is very busy helping God's people become all He wants them to be.
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2/2/2003
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Brand-Spankin' New Apostles!
Acts 1:1-8
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The legendary missionary to India, William Carey, didn't see obstacles; he saw opportunities. He was the "Let's go for it!" kind of guy. In fact, one of his most famous sayings was, "Attempt great things for God; expect great things from God." Carey did both and saw results! The Holy Spirit can take ordinary men and women and do extraordinary things with them. He is the God who "makes all things new" (Revelation 21:5). Such a truth can only create a sense of wonder and excitement in the heart of a child of God. After all, what new thing could God do through you?
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2/9/2003
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Unholy Responses to the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 4:30
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You might say that we live in the "Age of the Holy Spirit." Jesus promised Him to us after He was done with His own earthly ministry. We have seen that He is very active both in the world among the unconverted and in the church among God's own people. But He has one overriding goal-to bring glory to Jesus Christ in every life. What does that mean to us? It means a total surrendering to Him. As Oswald Chambers said, "The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a guest in a house. He invades everything." But what happens when people don't respond to Him rightly? Then what?
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2/23/2003
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The Exceedingly Un-Holy Spirit
1 John 5:19
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Satan, the prince of darkness, has been around a long time. He has studied mankind for thousands of years, marking his strategies according to what he sees in us and what God's plan for the world is. He hates what God loves; he fights what God establishes. And let's remember, he's got help! Other spirit beings have joined his rebellion and control the system known in Scripture as the world. John even said, "the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). What should we know about this arch-nemesis of God in order to stand against him?
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3/2/2003
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Touched by an Angel
Luke 1-2
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As even the title suggests, angels have become popular in modern culture. But whether we know it or not, we've all been "touched an angel." Martin Luther helped us to understand their role by remarking, "An angel is a spiritual creature created by God without a body, for the service of Christendom and of the church." He was partially correct, but angels serve an even greater role than being strictly for the church. Their ministry goes beyond us and is principally concerned with the glory and majesty of God.
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3/9/2003
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Man, Has God Got a Plan For You!
Genesis 1-3
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Alexander Pope once remarked that, "the chief study of man is man himself." That may be true, especially in our culture, but this could also be the reason why mankind is so desperate and spiritually thirsty. Looking only to ourselves rather than beyond ourselves can get pretty lonely! But why are we here? What is the purpose of mankind inhabiting this planet? How can I fulfill the God-given destiny that He originally designed for me?
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3/16/2003
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From Creation to Corruption
Genesis 2-3
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How did we, as the human race, get into the colossal mess we find ourselves in? Was it always this way? And what do Adam's actions, acted out so long ago, have to do with us in this modern technologically advanced age? Am I at all responsible? Can the effects ever be undone? Let's look at these issues in the opening chapters of Genesis.
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4/27/2003
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Church-Building 101
Matthew 16:13-20
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The church was God's idea; it was never man's notion. Jesus Christ is the founder, director, architect, owner and builder of the church. But there is an awful lot of confusion about what a church is supposed to look and function like. Today, we look at the first New Testament mention of the church and look at our spiritual origins. As we are Rediscovering Our Foundations, let's also rediscover our spiritual roots as the people of God.
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5/4/2003
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What Jesus Wants His Church to Be - Part 1
John 17
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The church is not a place, but a people (a called-out assembly of people who gather together and whose heartfelt conviction is that Jesus is Lord). Jesus laid claim on the church—it belongs to Him ("I will build My church"). So then, what does He want His church to be like? What should mark us overall? In Jesus' longest recorded prayer before His crucifixion, He prays for four characteristics that are to mark the people of God. Today we look at the first two.
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5/25/2003
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What Jesus Wants His Church to Be - Part 2
John 17
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Church shopping and church hopping have become one of American Christians’ favorite pastimes. We want a church that suits us, helps us, and pleases us. But since Jesus paid for it, it’s His church (Acts 20:28). So what does He want from us? What should the people of God be like? What ingredients and activities ought to be part of our makeup? In this series, Rediscovering our Foundations, we must rediscover the foundational purpose for our existence as His church.
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6/1/2003
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How to Build a Beautiful Body
1 Corinthians 12:3-22
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6/22/2003
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The Last Days
2 Peter 1-3
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On October 30, 1938, the day before Halloween, the novel War of the Worlds was made into a radio broadcast featuring Orson Welles. As millions of Americans were listening, the play was performed so it would sound like a news broadcast about an invasion from Mars. Many thought they were hearing an actual news account of an invasion from Mars and concluded this was the end. Some even committed suicide as their final fatal act! In Rediscovering Our Foundations, what can we know about the last days of this world and what can we do to prepare?
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6/29/2003
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I'll Be Back
John 13:31-14:6
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A little boy was trying desperately to tell his friends about what Jesus' return would be like. He described Jesus' coming in glory as being "greater than Superman, Batman, and the Power Rangers put together!" Of course even that would be an understatement. Jesus came here 2000 years ago and then left; but He promised to return. What will it be like? What difference should it make to us right here, right now?
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7/6/2003
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The Burning Question
Revelation 20:11-15
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Hell is an eternal and biblical reality that has been relegated to the junk pile of modern myths. Woody Allen once said that hell is the abode of all people who annoy him. The word hell is used on a daily basis in people's dicey language patterns—usually as a fill-in expletive. Of all the Christian doctrines unfolded in Scripture, hell is the toughest one to handle. Most love the notion of a blissful heaven awaiting them; few cling to the idea of a literal hell to punish the lost.
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7/13/2003
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Heaven: Our Final Frontier
Revelation 21:1-27
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Captain Kirk and his starship Enterprise weekly traversed the galaxies on the famed Star Trek episodes. That was fiction! But one day you will inhabit the recreated millennial earth in a glorified body and then explore the vast kingdoms of heaven in the eternal state. That is reality! It will be so different than what you're used to that it's linguistically impossible to convey its vastness. But there's enough here to whet the appetite for heaven!
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There are 29 additional messages in this series.
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