Christ Church

The Trinity and You (CC Downtown)

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INTRODUCTION

The Trinity is the central doctrine of the Christian faith because it is the doctrine of God Himself. Getting it wrong renders all other theological pursuits nonsensical. Like attempting to learn scuba-diving in the middle of the Great Sand Dunes. It might feel like a complicated doctrine, but we ought not to be intimidated by this doctrine. It’s not as if you won’t be let into heaven if you once were teaching a Sunday School class and used eggs as a metaphor for the Trinity. Just don’t do it again. This is one doctrine where charity should be shown in the articulation of it; severe strictness should be shown to someone who is in error and then doubles down on his error after being shown his error. St. Augustine once hedged his entire book on the Trinity with this, “If herein I am foolish, let him who knows better correct me.” To which I reply, “Ditto.”

THE TEXT

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:11-16 KJV

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

While our systematic theology ought to begin with this doctrine of the trinity and unity of God, it is striking that the clearest Biblical teaching on the Trinity is in the context of our salvation. We see that here in this passage. The duty to love one another is rooted in God’s love toward us (v11). God’s love, as we will see shortly, is triune. John explains that the invisible God is not the same thing as the unknowable God (v12). If believers love one another, this is only possible because God dwells in them, perfecting His love in them and through them (v12). How do we know that this love towards each other is the fruit of the triune God’s love toward us? Because God gave us His Spirit (v13), which is what our baptism is a promise and seal of (1 Jn. 2:20).

Though we cannot see God, the Apostles had seen the Son. This son had been sent by the Father. The Son was sent by the Father in order to be the Savior of the World (v14). In confessing that Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Son of God, you are assured that God dwells in you (by His Spirit), and you dwell in God (v15). John places our knowledge and belief in God in the context of this love which God showed to us. That love is a united love of the Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father set His love upon His elect, the Son was sent to save the elect, and the Spirit seals the elect with that love. To dwell in God is to dwell in love (v16). To experience the love of God is to experience the triune love of God. Apart from the Trinity you not only do not, but cannot, encounter God’s love.

COMPREHENDING THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE

As we consider the Trinity, we are not simply considering a doctrine. We are considering God Himself. He is holy, holy, holy; meaning, He is utterly unlike anything else you can consider. Furthermore, you can’t consider Him without also considering your relationship and duties to this God. This is the pinnacle of applied theology. Who is God? What is your duty to Him?

Considering the Trinity is considering a mystery. However, that’s not the same thing as saying that He cannot be apprehended by faith. The whole of Scripture leaves us with two realities regarding God. First, there’s only one God, while three distinct persons are all referred to as God. Each divine person is equal in essence, power, and glory; yet still somehow distinct from the other two. God in His fullness is incomprehensible to us (Ps. 139:6). Yet, God has given His fullness to us in Christ (Jn. 1:16). The work of redemption revealed in the NT gives us a trinitarian order: the Father sent the Son to be our Savior, and the Spirit gives you eyes to see this.

THE ERROR OF SUBORDINATION

All errors in thinking about God lead to errors in morality. You cannot be fully human without faith in this God who is one God in three persons. This is simplifying tomes of orthodoxy into a simple statement, but all trinitarian errors are really some form of importing subordination into the God-head. Ancient heresies often subordinated the Son and Spirit to the Father. Modern Pentecostals tend to fall into the error of modalism, which subordinates the Father and Son to the Spirit. Throughout history people have exalted various virtues so high that they come to believe God must be subordinated to that virtue. The mushy progressive wants love (or their sappy and spineless version of love) to govern what God is like. Likewise, Islamists want justice (or their definition of it) to handcuff God.

However, there is either unity in the Godhead, or there is warfare. It is a ridiculous thing to try to conceive of such conflict within God. It isn’t as if the Father wants to save Mr. Jones, but the Son and Spirit are a bit skeptical that they can pull that off. Rather, we should see that in the economy of salvation we have God’s love to sinful man displayed in brilliant trinitarian glory.

God the Father determined to save you, before the foundation of the world, despite all your transgressions which He foresaw you would commit against Him. He did so not because you deserved it, but because He is love, and delights to show mercy. He showed this love by sending His Son to take on human flesh, and then die and rise again in your stead. The Father and the Son have sent the Spirit to dwell in you, so that you can enjoy the love of the Father towards the Son and the Son towards the Father.

In Augustine’s triumphant masterpiece on the Trinity, he gives wise counsel when it comes to approaching this doctrine: “And if this is understood with difficulty, the mind must be purged by faith, by more and more abstaining from sins, and by doing good works, and by praying with the groaning of holy desires; that by profiting through the divine help, it may both understand and love (Augustine, On the Trinity, Book IV, Chap. 21, Sec. 31).” In other words, if you’re having trouble understanding this, then trust God, stop sinning, go serve others, and pray some more. Very sensible counsel.

COMING UNTO GODS

The whole reason you were made is the contemplation and enjoyment of God. To put it another way, you exist in order that you might come unto God. He made you, but He did not then go off and hide.

Rather, your very being is itself a witness to your reason of two things: that God is and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. The highest good for your body is to serve God. The highest good for your soul is to believe in God. The highest good for your mind is to think upon God. Since He is three-in-one this means this is how you must serve Him, what you must believe about Him, and how you must think about Him. You were made to come unto God. But come unto Him as He is––trinity in unity––not as you imagine Him to be.

You were made to know, believe, and love the Living God. Contemplate the Father’s generosity towards you giving you life in the first place, and then giving you new life through His Son. Consider that Christ took on flesh, in order to share in your humanity in order to take it down into death and raise it up into immortal life. Cherish the glory that you have received the Spirit of God to confirm you in this fellowship with the Triune God.

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God’s Character & Covenant (Christ Church)

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THE TEXT

I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.” You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The psalm is arranged into five sections: two small sections at the beginning and end, and three larger sections in the middle. The first section (v. 1-4) introduces the twin themes: God’s character and his covenant with David. In this psalm, his character is defined by his steadfast love and his faithfulness. Both of these words are applied in terms of his covenant with David–the promise that the seed of David will sit on an everlasting throne (v. 3-4). And this is crucial: the psalmist says he will sing of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness forever.

The psalmist then celebrates God’s majesty, might, and saving power (v. 5-16). God is incomparable; he sits enthroned among his heavenly council, but he is supreme over all of them. His dominion is from north to south, and east to west, from the highest heavens to the seas to the land. He is all-powerful, with a strong right hand and mighty arm, and his power is directed by his holy character (v. 14).

More than that, God crushes his enemies. Rahab is a reference to a dragon-demon associated with Egypt (Psalm 87:4; Isa 30:7). Crushing Rahab is linked to ruling and stilling the sea, just as God crushed the king of Egypt beneath a wall of water (Job 26:12; Isa 51:9).

This is a celebration of God’s majesty, might, and saving power, and the people who belong to God and join this celebration and walk in the light of his face are blessed (v. 15-16). God is the glory and beauty of his people’s strength (v. 17).

Then the psalmist brings God’s majesty to earth and links it to his covenant promises to David. Israel’s king is Israel’s shield (v. 18), and God is the one who found, helped, anointed, and exalted (v. 19-20). God’s mighty hand and arm? They establish and strengthen David (v. 21). Just as God tore Rahab apart, so will the Davidic king outwit and beat down his enemies (v. 23). God’s steadfast love and faithfulness will be with David (v. 24), and David will call upon God as Father, and God will make him his firstborn, the king of kings (v.26-27), and he will establish David’s offspring on an everlasting throne (v. 28-29). God’s covenant with David and his sons will endure, even if and when David’s sons break God’s law. Discipline? Yes. Rod? Yes? Rejection? No. Why? Because of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness (v. 33). God’s character has established this covenant with an oath (v. 34-35), and David’s offspring and throne will endure as long as the sun, moon, and stars–faithful witnesses in the sky (v. 36-37).

Then we have the turn. Verse 38 introduces a contrast. For the next ten verses, God’s steadfast love and faithfulness are completely absent. Instead, we see a rejected son (v.28) , a renounced covenant, a defiled crown (v. 39), breached walls, ruined fortresses (v. 40), plundered cities (v. 41), triumphant foes, rejoicing enemies (v. 42), a throne in the dust, and shame, scorn, and reproach in every direction (v. 41, 45). God’s wrath has come upon the people because the king, David’s son, has rebelled against God. And so the psalmist is confused. In light of God’s character and covenant, how can this be? How long will it last (v. 46)? If God’s character and covenant fail, then everything is futile, vain, and worthless (v. 47). Will the psalmist see God’s saving power before he dies, because no one escapes the power of Sheol (v. 48)?

The final section is an appeal to God’s steadfast love and his faithfulness to David, in light of the mocking reproach of the nations (v. 50-51). The psalmist asks where God’s covenant love has gone, begs him to remember his promise, and concludes with a triumphant hope: Blessed be the Lord forever (v. 52).

READ YOUR STORY IN LIGHT OF THE STORY

One of the great values of regular Bible reading is knowing what story you’re a part of, and being able to read your life in light of it. This psalm is filled with echoes and allusions to the big events of Israel’s history.

– The revelation of God’s name, glory, and goodness to Moses in Exodus 34:6.

– God’s oath to the patriarchs. When God wants to convincingly show the unchangeable character of his promise (Heb. 6:13), he swears by himself, like he does to Abraham after the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. 22:16-18, or in Isaiah 45:23, when God swears by himself that every knee will bow and every tongue swear allegiance to him as the only righteous God and Savior.

– The Davidic Covenant (2 Sam. 7:12-16).

WHAT IS REAL?

The gap in this psalm is between what the psalmist knows of God’s character and covenant on the one hand, and the circumstances at the present moment. Who God is (steadfast love and faithfulness) and what God has said (oath and covenant to David) seem out of accord with the reality before him (judgment, wrath, and a crown in the dust).

That is the question for all of us when the world seems confusing, futile, and vain. Do we interpret our circumstances in light of God’s character and covenant? Or do we abandon God’s character and covenant in the face of our circumstances?

God has promised the nations to Christ as his inheritance (Psalm 2:8; Matthew 28:12-20). And then we look at the state of the world, and the state of our nation, and see the rampant apostasy, rebellion, and decay around us. What’s more real? God’s character and covenant? Or sexual deviancy, political corruption, and widespread evangelical apathy and compromise?

When your kids wander, or when they get a case of the wobbles: what’s more real? God’s character and covenant? Or the wobbles and wandering? How do you pray? Do you bless God in confidence that he will hear and answer?

Or maybe it’s your own faith and holiness. When you see your abiding anger and envy, your drunkenness and lust, your anxiety and fear of man, your worldliness and selfishness, you feel the confusion and vanity. What is more real to you? Do you still sing of the steadfast love of the Lord?

This is not hypocrisy; it’s what a living faith does when confronted with the vanity of man and the discipline of God. Faith honestly confronts the facts on the ground, and then appeals to God’s character and his covenant. How much of your mental attention is devoted to rooting yourself in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, in rehearsing his mighty deeds and covenant promises, and how much is spent fixating on the breached walls, triumphant enemies, and reproaching shame?

CHRIST’S CROWN

Christ is the offspring of David. He crushed the dragon’s head. He stilled the waves. He was strengthened by God’s grace. His enemies did not outwit him. God anointed him with his Spirit, and established and exalted him above the angels and the powers.

But Christ himself faced God’s rejection and absence. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” His crown was defiled in the dust. His days were cut short, and he was covered in shame. But Christ bridged the gap between God’s character and covenant, and the rejection and crown in the dust. In his darkest moments, he called upon God as Father, in Gethsemane (Matt 26:39-42) and at Calvary (Luke 23:34, 46).

Christ saw death…and he swallowed it whole. He crushed both Death and the Dragon. So where is the steadfast love of the Lord? Where is his faithfulness that he swore to David? It’s on a Roman cross. It’s exalted at God’s right hand, seated above every angelic and demonic power, ruling over heaven and earth, as God puts all of his enemies under his feet. That’s why in Revelation 1:5, Christ is introduced with distinctive language from Psalm 89 as “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth.”

And his oath and covenant are sealed in blood. He swore by his holiness. He swore by his faithfulness. And that faithfulness is yours. “His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.”

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And So Spake (Acts of the Apostles #31) (Christ Church)

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INTRODUCTION

Having departed from Antioch, Paul and Barnabas came to Iconium, another significant town in Galatia. The ministry here was one of the most successful missions that they engaged in, and the results were predictably tumultuous. But in the course of this passage we learn a few things about how gospel proclamation ought to go. How the gospel was preached had a significant impact on the results.

THE TEXT

“And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren. Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them, They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about: And there they preached the gospel” (Acts 14:1–7).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

So Paul and Barnabas arrived in Iconium, still in the province of Galatia. They went to the synagogue, and there spoke in such a way that a large number of Jews and Greeks both believed (v. 1). But the Jews who had not believed agitated some Gentiles and turned their minds against them (v. 2). Nevertheless, they ministered there for a long time, speaking boldly. That boldness provided additional testimony to their words, and they also performed signs and wonders (v. 3). As a consequence, the city at large was divided—one half with the Jews and the other with the apostles (v. 4). We are not talking about a handful of people—one estimate of the city’s population at the time was between 30 thousand and 50 thousand people. But a time came when there was a concerted assault on the apostles, coming from unbelieving Gentiles, unbelieving Jews, and their rulers (v. 5). Paul and Barnabas had some advance warning of the attack, and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities in the neighboring province of Lycaonia (v. 6). They then preached the gospel there as well (v. 7).

BOLDLY

One of the signature marks of the Spirit’s presence in preaching is the element of boldness. The Sanhedrin took note of the boldness of Peter and John (Acts 4:13). Barnabas testified to the boldness of Saul in Damascus (Acts 9:27). Saul also preached boldly in Jerusalem (Acts 9:29). They spoke boldly here in Iconium (Acts 14:3). Apollos spoke boldly, even though he required further instruction (Acts 18:26). Paul spoke boldly in the synagogue at Ephesus over the course of three months (Acts 19:8).

And after Peter and John were threatened, their request was for boldness (Acts 4:29), and the request was granted (Acts 4:31). When Paul requests prayer for his preaching, this is one of the great things he asks for (Eph. 6:19-20). In Scripture, boldness really is a big deal.

We are told here that the mere fact of their boldness lent testimony, a witness, to the word of grace they were preaching (v. 3). We are also told that this manner of speaking was one of the reasons why they were so effective in the first place. We are told in v. 1 that they “so spake . . .” They spoke in such a way that a large number believed. How they spoke mattered. How they spoke was used by God.

PREACH IN ORDER TO WINNOW

But notice that this effective ministry split the city of Iconium clean in two. The messengers with a gospel of peace were in fact the instruments of a significant amount of tumult in the town. This is because the representatives of genuine peace will always be at odds with the priests and mavens of a false peace.

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34–36).

The perennial temptation that confronts evangelicals is the temptation to strive for universal winsomeness, universal niceness. When that happens, and this false view takes root in the seminaries, the result is that men start preaching for consensus. But the appointed task is to preach for decision.

But when you preach for decision, people decide in different directions and then you have division. Now boldness is a direct threat to the first approach, and it is an essential ingredient in the second.

SONS OF THUNDER

George Whitefield, a great preacher of the eighteenth century, once said this: “I love those who thunder out the Word. The Christian world is in a deep sleep! Nothing but a loud voice can awaken them out of it.”

When the Lord Jesus called James and John, His nickname for them was Boanerges, sons of thunder (Mark 3:17). James was the first apostle to be martyred, which is not surprising, and John was apparently the last one to die, which perhaps is. Men with this temperament will sometimes have to be steadied a bit, or admonished. “You do not know what spirit you are of . . .” (Luke 9:54-55). That is true enough, but it is far, far better to have to say whoa than to have to say giddyup.

PRAYING FOR REFORMATION AND REVIVAL

We have been praying for a great work of the Spirit for decades now. But it is essential that we realize that what we are praying for is boldness in our preachers, and as a consequence of that, tumult in our towns.

Now the professionally winsome will of course have arguments, some of them good arguments.There will be those who call themselves friends of the revival who cause division through the simple expedient of being jerks. They are affirming the consequent. If this is a dog, it will have four legs . . . but having four legs doesn’t make anything a dog.

It is not possible for a culture as far gone as ours is to be called back to faithfulness without massive disruption. And the reason winsomeness is so attractive to so many evangelical leaders is not that they are so nice. It is that they are disruption-averse.

As you have heard me say before, it is Christ or chaos. But there is another sense in which we must also say that it is Christ and chaos. This is not recognized the way it should be because too many Christian leaders are unwilling to be chased to Lystra and Derbe.

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