Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
October 1, 2023
INTRO
George Whitefield was perhaps the most famous evangelical preacher in the early American colonies. (SLIDE 2) He came to saving faith during his university studies in England.
Because his family was poor and couldn’t pay for school, he made arrangements to essentially be a servant for faculty and other students in order to get free tuition.
Up to that point in his life, Whitefield had tried as hard as he could to good works and to follow God’s law. He thought he was a good Christian. Now here at school, he cleaned rooms, he carried books, he tutored students, and he really made himself feel like he was racking up favor with God through his good deeds.
Yet something profoundly changed in him when he was confronted with the gospel. He read a book by a Scottish pastor named Henry Scougal called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. Whitefield was convicted by the reality that he was still lost despite his attempts to earn God’s favor through his good works. He came to understand the biblical message of the gospel: Salvation is by grace through faith, it is a work of God through-and-through!
KEY: Whitefield discovered that the gospel is about reconciliation to God the Father, carried out through God the Son, in the power of God the Spirit. He came to realize that redemption was the gracious, unmerited, and loving gift of the one Triune God.
After graduation, The Church of England did not assign Whitefield a church, so he began preaching in parks and fields (SLIDE 3), reaching out to people who normally did not attend church. His exposition of God’s Word, along with his passionate and dramatic preaching style, made a huge impact as crowds of people turned their lives over to Christ.
In 1740, Whitefield traveled across the Atlantic to the American colonies and he preached every day, sometimes multiple times a day, to crowds as large as 30,000 people. Over the course of the next 30 years, Whitefield made 7 trips to America and preached over 18,000 sermons to an estimated 10 million people!
He was famous for preaching on John 3:7, the story of Jesus and Nicodemus, where Jesus says, “You must be born again.” He preached this one verse over and over and over again. Eventually, some of his critics came to him and said, “Why do you continue to preach the same thing over and over?” And Whitefield replied, “Because you must be born again!”
His legacy still reverberates in churches today who embrace the biblical gospel of reconciliation to the Father, through the redemption of the Son, in the power of the Spirit.
(SLIDE 4, title)We are circling back to John 14 this week, taking extra time to ponder the deep truths of this part of the Gospel of John. If you’re just joining us, we had messages on John 14 the last two Sundays, but this week we want to specifically focus on the richness of the trinitarian theology in this chapter.
PROP — Here’s what I want to help you see this morning: John 14 reveals to us the distinct trinitarian shape of the gospel, it unfolds the truth that God is three-in-one, and it invites us to find our hope and joy in the Triune God. In other words, the Trinity is good news. And my heart for our church is that we would stand in awe of the Triune God as we see a fresh vision of his glory and realize the great gift we have in being brought into communion with him.
So with that in mind, open your Bibles to John 14. I would like to read the entire chapter so you can hear the flow of Jesus’ teaching to his disciples in the Upper Room. Remember, they are in distress and the disciples don’t understand what is going to happen the next day when Jesus goes to the cross. So here Jesus explains what is to come. And I want you to listen to this chapter with an ear to the trinitarian shape of the text. Let’s read. READ John 14.
ORG SENT — There is a trinitarian shape to this text that unfolds the beautiful truth of the gospel. (SLIDE 5) In verses 1-4, we see the good news that we are invited into intimate relationship with God the Father. In verses 5-14, we see the good news that the only way to enter this relationship is through God the Son. In verses 15-31, we see the good news that the transforming power to know God and to walk in his ways comes through the presence of God the Spirit. So, let’s look at the way this text describes the good news of Father, Son, and Spirit.
MAIN 1 — God the Father (vv. 1-4). (SLIDE 6a)
The image of a household here is critical for us to understand. The people who live in a household typically are family! In the ancient world, it was very common for multiple generations to live in a house together, and when children grew and married, they would often build an addition to the main house for that new couple to live alongside their extended family.
IMPORTANT — Don’t take this lightly: (SLIDE 6b) You are being invited into God the Father’s household. Christ the groom, his church the Bride, there is a place being prepared for us in the Father’s house so that we can dwell with God forever. (SLIDE 6c) In the gospel, you can be forgiven of sin, washed clean and reconciled to God the Father, freely by his mercy and grace, so that you can be adopted into God’s family!
This is for God’s praise and glory! As Ephesians 1:3-6 says, (SLIDE 7) “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”
KEY: (SLIDE 8a) The reconciling love we receive by grace through faith when we are adopted into God’s family flows from the perfection of the love that has eternally existed within the very being of Triune God.
This is a critical component to our understanding of the Trinity: When the Apostle John writes later in 1 John 4:8 that “God is love,” (SLIDE 8b) this means that love is essential to his being, it is not something he discovered or decided at some point in history to exercise. Because God has eternally existed as three-in-one, he is the perfection of love within himself.
In other words, his love is infinitely flowing within his one being in three persons, and he does not need any other being and he is not dependent on others to express love or receive love.
You see, there are some belief systems that teach that Jesus was not eternally begotten of the Father, but created at some moment prior to the creation of the world. If this were the case, then being a Father would not be essential to God’s being, there would be a time before God loved, and God’s love would be conditional upon the lovability of another being. In other words, Jesus would have to earn God’s love. If this were true, then we would have to say “God has love” or “God expresses love”, but we could not say “God is love.”
ILLUST — Theologian Jared Wilson puts it this way: (SLIDE 9) “A solitary god cannot be love. He may learn to love. He may yearn for love. But he cannot in himself be love, because love requires an object. Real love requires relationship…If God were not a Trinity but merely a solitary divinity, he could neither be love nor be God!”
This would destroy the good news of the gospel. (SLIDE 10, blank) If love is conditional, if God’s love is not eternal within himself, if Jesus is merely created and could lose the Father’s love, we would be horribly shackled with the same danger of losing God’s favor. There would be no security in his love, God would be merely a judge who condemns us, we would be lost and still dead in our sinful flesh.
But friends, hear the good news: There can be a place for you in God’s household in the heavenly realm, you can be adopted into sonship or daughtership in the perfections of God’s own love that eternally flows in all its beautiful fullness of his being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
How do we come into this promise? How do we receive this gift of the intimate relationship with God our Father? What is the path, or better yet, who is the way?
MAIN 2 — God the Son (vv. 5-14). (SLIDE 11a)
Go back to verse 5. Thomas asks this classic question, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” He doesn’t quite understand that Jesus is talking about ascending to heaven to be with God the Father until he returns at the end of history to bring all God’s children into the new heavens and new earth.
So Jesus responds with the 6th I AM statement of the gospel of John, which I explained two weeks ago is recalling the self-revelation of Yahweh to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:14. God revealed to Moses that his name is “I AM WHO I AM.” (SLIDE 11b)
Jesus’ words in verses 6-7 are not only an exclusive truth claim, but they reveal something profound about the unfolding revelation of the Triune God: Jesus is God in the flesh. (SLIDE 11c)
Just look at Jesus’ response to Philip again in verses 9-10. READ vv. 9-10.
Theologians call this perichoresis. (SLIDE 11d) It is the mutual indwelling of the persons of the Trinity; fully one with each other, each in full possession of the divine essence; truly three, truly one. There is one divine will, one divine essence, yet three persons in eternal loving unity.
ILLUST — Pastor and theologian Kevin DeYoung says it this way: “What perichoresis maintains is that you cannot have one person of the Trinity without having the other two, and you cannot have any person of the Trinity without having the fullness of God.”
ILLUST — Or as theologian Wayne Grudem puts it, “God is three persons, each person is fully God, there is one God.”
ILLUST — Or like the 4th century theologian Augustine said, “Each are in each, and all in each, and each in all, and all are one.”
Confused yet? Friends, we can sometimes struggle in our finite minds to comprehend the Triune God. But I’ll let you in on a secret…this is perfectly normal!
Because God is inscrutable and no one compares with him, the Trinity is not a concept that can be fully comprehended, but a revealed truth that causes worship and awe of God Almighty. There is none like him, his holiness and perfections are utterly unique, and this is precisely why we stand in awe of the Triune God.
It is in this revealed truth that we learn that Jesus is the fullness of deity in bodily form as Paul writes in Colossians 2:9, that if you have seen him you have seen the Father, that we see the purposes of God carried out in the person of Christ.
As Ephesians 1:7-8 says, (SLIDE 12) “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ.”
Friends, in the gospel we have the revelation of God’s plan for salvation: reconciliation to the Father through Christ the Son, and this is applied to us by the regenerating and sanctifying work of the God the Spirit.
MAIN 3 — God the Spirit (vv. 15-31). (SLIDE 13a)
This final section of the text reveals the promise of the personal presence of God dwelling within us by the Spirit. (SLIDE 13b) The Holy Spirit is “another Advocate”, the extension of and application of Christ our Defender and Redeemer, proceeding from the Father and the Son as the person of the Trinity who brings about regeneration and sanctification, born again, new creations in the Spirit.
ILLUST — Theologian Herman Bavinck wrote over 100 years ago, (SLIDE 13c) “Just as no one comes to the Father but through the Son (John 14:6), so no one can say that Jesus is Lord except through the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3). Through the Spirit we have fellowship with the Father and the Son. It is in the Holy Spirit that God Himself through Christ dwells in our hearts.”
Friends, the gift of the Holy Spirit is good news. We need his enlivening and quickening power within us, we need his strength, we need his guidance, we need his wisdom, we need his conviction, we need his truth, and we need his comforting presence.
ASIDE: We need to be careful to remember that the Holy Spirit is a person, not a vague force or power. We use the word “he” and “him”, not “it.” HE is fully God, HE is in full possession of the divine essence, HE is God dwelling in us.
It is through the person of the Holy Spirit that we are incorporated into the fellowship of the Triune God, and the Spirit is the downpayment that points ahead to the face-to-face presence of God in the new heavens and new earth.
As Ephesians 1:13-14 says, (SLIDE 14) “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
APPLY
Let me take a moment to clarify some errors in our understanding of the Trinity. It is critical that we think carefully about this doctrine, because rightly understood the biblical vision of the Triune God will move us to awe and praise!
Here is the correct biblical understanding of the Trinity: (SLIDE 15)
There is one God (Deut 6:4; Mark 12:29)
God is three persons (Matt 3:16-17; 28:19)
Each person is fully God (John 14; Eph 4:4-5)
KEY: These truths are to be received by faith! It is not ultimately something that can be explained by human reason alone, and when we try to force this truth into a rational explanation we typically fall into three error that correspond to each of the central truths:
(SLIDE 16a) Tritheism — denies that there is one God. This error places too much emphasis on the distinction of the Father, Son, and Spirit, making them separate beings.
(SLIDE 16b) Modalism — denies that God is three persons. This error tries to protect the oneness of God by saying that there is only one God who appears in different forms at different times. At one time he is the Father, at another time he is the Son, and at another time he is the Spirit.
(SLIDE 16c) Subordinationism — denies that each person is fully God. This error teaches that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are less than God the Father. From a sincere desire to protect that God is one, some people will lessen the divine nature of the Son and the Spirit. But this has disastrous results for the gospel, our understanding of worship, and the ongoing sanctifying work of God within our lives.
The best illustration of the Trinity is a diagram that looks like this: DIAGRAM (SLIDE 17)
The Father is God, but not the Son or the Spirit. The Son is God, but not the Father or the Spirit. The Spirit is God, but not the Father or the Son. Each is fully God, all are one, each are each, three persons, one God.
Pastor Steve put together a handout about the Trinity. (SLIDE 18, blank)
This is where we need to land this morning. ASK: What impact does this make in our lives? Why is the reality of the Triune God good news? What do you love about the Trinity? What causes you to be in awe of the Triune God? What does it look like to live daily in your reconciliation with the Father, secure in your redemption through the Son, and empowered and comforted by the presence of the Spirit?
ILLUST — The last couple weeks I have been battling some discouragement and also some headaches and dizziness that I’ve experienced in the past during times of stress. On Tuesday this week I was having a particular difficult day. I was supposed to record a radio spot on KDWA, and as I was driving over to the studio I had no idea what I was going to say. I felt empty and weak, brain fog, tired, and just not in good shape.
I prayed, “Lord, I need you. What do you want me to say?” And I just felt the Lord prompt me to talk about weakness and difficulty, and how we see the love of the Father, secure because of our redemption in Christ, ministering to us through the comfort of the Spirit in the beautiful picture of a church family that cares for one another.
I shared about my experience as a kid when my twin brother had cancer and I saw the church care for me and my family. And throughout this story, the host of the show who was interviewing me started crying. Tears were welling up, and when we finally ended the show and the mics were turned off, she looked at me and said, “God is so good.”
In the midst of my own weakness, this radio host caught a glimpse that the Triune God is good. There was a weightiness to what we talked about, precisely because the deep truths of the Trinity were playing out as the Triune God was doing his work in her heart.
I walked out of that radio station praising God! I saw afresh the truth of 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
It is in our desperate need that the Triune God will powerfully reveals himself. As I said earlier, my heart for you is that you would stand in awe of the Triune God as you see a fresh vision of his glory and realize the great gift you have in being brought into communion with him.
ILLUST — Pastor and theologian A.W. Tozer wrote about apprehending the reality of the Triune God in his classic book The Pursuit of God: (SLIDE 19) “As we begin to focus upon God, spiritual things will take shape before our inner eyes enabling us to see God even as is promised to the pure in heart. A new God-consciousness will seize upon us and we shall begin to taste and hear and inwardly feel the God who is our life and our all…More and more, as our faculties grow sharper and more sure, God will become to us the great All, and His Presence will be the glory and wonder of our lives.”
May we find our hope and joy in the good news of the Triune God.