An Introduction to the Trinity

Father, we want to be humble before your word.

Father, humble us so that we can listen to your word.

Humble us, Father, still our preconceptions and the limits we want to put on your word.

Father, at the same time, humble us in such a way that we still desire to use the very best of our mind to hear and to understand your word.

And we ask, Father, that your word would be so read and heard by us that it will enter deeply into our lives, into the center of who we are,

and that we would then, in our day-to-day lives, bear much fruit that brings you great glory.

And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

I don't know how many people read the blog that I write every week.

It's in the bulletin.

This isn't a plug for it or anything, but I make mention to something that happened to me when I was in university.

There were several times in university that I almost lost my faith.

And I record just very briefly one of the incidents that actually took place over several months where I almost lost my faith.

I was familiar with the idea that Jehovah Witnesses didn't believe that Jesus was God and they didn't believe in the Trinity.

But I'd never come across somebody who seemed to know the Bible quite well and who wasn't a Jehovah Witness

and who claimed that the Trinity isn't taught in the Bible and that the Bible doesn't teach and Jesus didn't claim that he was God.

And this caught me by surprise.

And at first I just completely and utterly, I didn't know, I didn't know actually that the word Trinity never is found in the Bible.

And I denied it.

And that's actually a really bad start to a type of a long-time argument or discussion,

that I deny something and it turns out they're right.

And one of the problems I had is that when I started to look into the Bible to see where it taught about the Trinity,

in particular in Jesus being God as well,

the texts that I could come across, they didn't seem to teach what I thought they would teach.

They seemed really weak.

And it was sort of a bit of a dark time for me because I thought maybe I was wrong about this.

And it would, for me, I mean, I would have probably stopped being a Christian, actually, if I'd come to that conclusion.

And so we're going to look at a text today that talks about the Trinity.

And it would be a great help to me if you would open your Bibles to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

And in some ways, I don't know if this was one of the texts that I would have looked at all those years ago,

a long time ago now when I was in university.

I don't know if this would have been one of the texts, but it actually is a really good text to illustrate some of the problems that people have

when they go to the Bible to find proof for the Trinity.

And one of the things, you might not know this, so I'm going to tell you this right now.

This is actually Trinity Sunday in the ancient church year.

And this is the text appointed to be read if you're doing a communion service on Trinity Sunday.

And the interesting thing about it is that this text, as a reading, goes back to the early 400s.

And the early Christians, they were increasingly having to deal with people who were illiterate.

And even those who could read, before the invention of the printing press, people wouldn't have Bibles.

So the early Christians tried to think through what Bible passages would be read on a Sunday when people came to church

that would be read every year so that people would have a basic knowledge and understanding of the important things in the Bible.

You think about it, if you had to go into an area that was illiterate, and even if they could read, they didn't have books,

you might want to think of something like that as well.

It's a very interesting missiological question.

Sorry, I like to use big words occasionally.

So one of the things which puzzled me as I look at this text is it wouldn't normally be a text that I would teach on

if I wanted to try to teach about the Trinity.

In fact, usually I would jump around to a lot of different texts.

But we're just going to sit with this text for about half an hour and just look at it.

Because this, for 1600 years, this would be one of the texts that people would go to if they want to talk about the Trinity.

That's sort of interesting in and of itself, isn't it?

And so let's look at it.

John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

But actually, before we read John chapter 3, we're going to start actually in chapter 2, verse 23.

John 3 · chapter mention

And this is very important.

This is a, I have to be careful.

I can have lots of asides in a sermon.

But this is an important aside.

One of the standard problems that Christians have when they read the Bible is that they forget that the Bible is made up of books.

So John is a book.

John sat down and read it.

He began it, verse 1, and he kept writing until he came to the end.

And we tend to take pieces of the Bible as if they're just quotes.

You know, as if you go to a book of quotations or a web page of quotations,

where it doesn't really matter what quote you read.

But the Bible isn't written as a book of quotes.

It's written as a book.

And if you've ever read John's Gospel, you'll know that Jesus is infuriating in John's Gospel.

Because all the way through John's Gospel, somebody will say to Jesus,

here's my question, here's my problem.

And then the very, very next thing you know is that Jesus is talking about something completely and utterly different.

And it often doesn't seem to make very much sense when you're reading John's Gospel.

Well, if you've been wondering that in your personal devotions, I've now said it out loud.

It often doesn't seem to make any sense.

And the reason it doesn't make any sense is because we've forgotten that it's a book.

And what John does here at the end of chapter 2, he gives us, in a sense, a reading key for the rest of the book.

So let's just read it.

And then you'll see what I mean.

Now, when Jesus was in Jerusalem, this is chapter 2, verse 23.

When Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man.

For he himself knew what was in man.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees.

Now, just pause here.

What this text is saying is that you're going to now read, John, in a sense, is saying you're going to read a whole, I'm going to give you now a whole pile of stories about Jesus.

And what you have to understand in all of these stories is that Jesus understands what's actually going on in a human being.

And so what you're going to see is that people will come to Jesus and they think they know what's going on in their lives.

Or at least they want to present a particular picture of themselves to Jesus and they say something.

But Jesus doesn't answer their mere words.

He deals with their heart.

Okay?

It's just as if maybe you have a, you know, in a couple of years, young Everett will come to the parents.

And he might want to be saying this.

But if the parents are wise, they might understand that actually Everett, you know, maybe he's worried that he, I don't know, painted all over the wall.

Or, you know, crayoned all over the wall or something.

And Everett's not really asking or trying to do what he seems to be wanting to do.

He's actually, in a sense, trying to deal with this other thing that's going on in his life.

And a wise parent will try to read beneath the words or behind the words to see what's going on in the heart.

Obviously very hard for us human beings to do.

So all the way through the Gospel of John, that's what Jesus is going to do.

He's going to address the heart issue, not the words, per se.

He goes underneath the words to the heart.

So let's see how this works out with Nicodemus.

And by the way, Nicodemus is a Canadian.

Eh?

You'll see it in a moment.

I mean, technically, he's not really a Canadian.

But what you see here is you see here represented a perfect Canadian.

It goes here, chapter 3, verse 1.

Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him,

Rabbi, or that could also be translated as teacher,

we know that you are a teacher come from God,

for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Now, just pause.

Why is he a Canadian?

Well, first, because, you know,

if you were to say what Nicodemus just said,

is that Jesus is a teacher come from God,

you could say that in the editorial room of the Ottawa Citizen

or the National Post or the Globe and Mail.

You could say it on CBC Radio.

You could say it at University of Ottawa

on the philosophy faculty or the religion faculty,

and nobody would raise their eyes at it.

Yeah, Jesus is a teacher come from God.

There's been lots of teachers come from God.

And from an anthropological and sociological point of view,

we're now on very, very familiar territory.

We can have a conversation about teachers who come from God.

It's a very Canadian understanding of who Jesus is.

And so it's very, very interesting that this Canadian is here.

And why specifically is it Canadian?

Because he comes to Jesus at night

when nobody will know that he wants to talk to him.

Because it doesn't bear to be too hung up about Jesus

or too preoccupied about Jesus in public.

Like, people might get worried

that you're one of those fundamentalist types.

So Nicodemus, he wants to talk to Jesus.

He comes at night when nobody can see him.

And he begins, Nicodemus, like in modern cultural context,

Nicodemus would be like a person who has their PhD in philosophy,

also have their PhD in theology.

They're also a lawyer.

And they're also in the cabinet of the province of Ontario.

And they also happen to be very wealthy.

Like, would be Nicodemus all rolled into one.

And so Nicodemus is a member of the elite.

He's very, very well educated.

He comes to Jesus and says,

I want to talk about prophets who come from God.

I want to talk about teachers who teach about God with you, Jesus.

Let's talk about that.

So how does Jesus respond to this?

From a Canadian point of view,

a very reasonable thing to want to talk about.

How does Jesus respond?

Look at verse 3.

We're going to be,

and this is what's so frustrating about Jesus for a lot of us.

He talks like he's a hick from the Appalachian Mountains.

One of those religious whack jobs.

That's a bit frightening for us sophisticated Canadian Christians

to understand that Jesus talks like he's going to one of those weird,

fundamentalist whack jobs.

That in and of itself is a disturbing notion

to a lot of contemporary Christians in Canada.

Here's how Jesus answers this very reasonable discussion

about teachers who teach about God.

He says, verse 3,

Truly, truly, verily, verily, amen, amen,

I say to you, unless one is born again,

he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And some of your Bibles probably have a little note.

The words that have been translated in English as born again

can also equally be translated as born from above.

Equally valid way of translating the word.

And so Jesus completely and utterly comes at this

from a very, very, very different way.

Now I want to pause here just for a second.

And if Andrew, you could put up the first point.

God is not a mere object for our minds to play with.

God is not a mere object for our minds to play with.

This is going to be one of the powerful themes throughout this.

And in fact, remember I shared with you

that when I started looking into texts,

back in university,

trying to find out whether the Bible taught the Trinity,

if I'm honest,

what was going on in my mind

is that I was treating the topic of God

as if he was an object for my mind to play with.

And I was looking for words

suitable to my way of arguing

and my way of thinking.

And when I didn't see them,

I was disappointed.

I wanted God to have written a part of the Bible

that said the Trinity,

you know, and then have, you know,

43 points or seven points

you need to know about the Trinity

and have it all very nicely logically laid out

so I could win the argument against this person.

In other words,

I wanted to treat this topic

as if God was an object

that my mind could play with.

Now just,

if you think about this for a second,

the Bible teaches that God is a person,

imagine for a moment

that my wife was in here

and she was sitting in that seat

and I was to spend the next 20 minutes

talking about my wife

as if she was an object for my mind to play with,

trying to discuss the pros and cons of her character,

the nature of who she is,

her looks, etc.

That would not go over very well.

In fact,

that would not go over well for me

for the next several decades of my life,

actually,

if I was to treat my wife

as an object for my mind to play with.

Yet that's what we want to do with God.

And so Jesus is going to try to

knock that desire

out from under us.

So this guy wants to just talk about teachers

who talk about God

and Jesus says,

you need to be born again,

you need to be born from above.

Now Nicodemus responds

with a reductio ad absurdum argument.

I mean, he's well educated.

He knows how to have these debates.

In fact, he might even think,

oh, Jesus is doing a very interesting opening move.

Well, I'm going to defeat him.

So Nicodemus says to Jesus,

verse four,

how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time

into his mother's womb and be born?

Nicodemus takes one of the two senses,

born again or born above.

And if this was being done on TV,

there'd be a convenient little gong right here.

And after Nicodemus has said this to Jesus,

he would have picked up the thing and gone,

gong, got ya.

Big smile, sit down,

waiting for Jesus to come back

because he's made such a good response,

reductio ad absurdum.

And Jesus keeps going after the heart.

Here's how Jesus talks.

And the words in my version,

truly, truly,

if you use the King James version,

it's verily, verily.

I have to say verily, verily.

That sounds so much neater than truly, truly.

It could also be translated as amen, amen.

Verse five,

Jesus answered,

truly, truly,

verily, verily,

amen, amen.

I say to you,

unless one is born of water and the spirit,

he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh

and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you,

you must be born again

or you must be born from above.

The wind blows where it wishes

and you hear its sound,

but you do not know where it comes from

or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.

Now, this is a very odd way for Jesus to answer.

And if you go and look at academic commentaries,

there's been piles of trees killed

and ink spilled on this particular topic

because in a very, very interesting way,

a lot of modern commentators

want to make it look as if Jesus is talking

about something called baptismal regeneration.

That if you baptize somebody with water,

they're automatically saved.

And that's not what this text is talking about at all.

Jesus is Jewish.

John is Jewish.

Jesus is talking to a Jewish scholar.

And Jesus, in a sense,

points to two passages,

more than two passages in what we call the Old Testament,

what the Jewish people call the Tanakh.

If you look in the bulletin,

you'll see that I give the text in Isaiah and Ezekiel.

And that's what Jesus does.

And Nicodemus,

who would have known the Old Testament,

at least the words,

he might not have understood the significance of it,

but he understood,

he would have remembered the words.

And he would have known

that those are very significant texts

because those are texts where God says,

you human beings,

you do not have living hearts.

You inside of you and in your heart,

in the Old Testament,

that's the command center of the individual.

It's not the seat of the emotions.

It's the command center of the person.

It's the command center that directs the will,

that directs the mind,

that directs the affections or the heart and the emotions.

And he says,

God says,

your heart is a dead stone.

That's what you have

at the command center of who you are,

a stone which is dead.

And you need me

to work with water in the spirit

to give you a heart of flesh,

a living heart.

And I will do this.

A time will come.

And he uses this double imagery

of water in the spirit,

of cleansing,

of life in a desert type of area,

the idea of water and life

and the spirit.

And that's the image that he uses

in Isaiah and Ezekiel.

In fact, Andrew,

if you could put up this next point.

By nature,

I have a heart of dead stone.

By grace,

God will give me

a new and living heart.

And in Isaiah and Ezekiel,

it's God that will do this.

God will do something

with water and spirit,

water and breath.

God will do something

because the human problem

is that we have hearts

that are dead,

that are stones.

And we weren't made by God

to have such hearts.

We were made to have

a command center that was alive

and was open to God.

And stones can't turn into life.

It doesn't matter if you have

a tiny stone or a big stone.

It doesn't matter if you put

all sorts of stones together.

You can make stones

as stony as you want.

They just say stones.

They don't come alive.

God has to do a miracle

to turn a heart of stone

into a living heart.

And that's what the Bible says

that God is going to do.

And Jesus, in a sense,

is referring to it.

And he's going to,

in a sense,

as the conversation goes on,

says,

is in effect saying

that his presence there

is the means by which

God is going to do it.

So Nicodemus,

in verse 9,

here's another thing

about reading the Bible.

When you read narratives

or conversations,

a lot of time,

it will come to a fork

in the road.

And you can ask yourself,

when you're reading a narrative

or something like this,

a conversation,

you can ask yourself,

this conversation can go

in one of two ways.

Will Nicodemus continue

to sort of act like

he is the member of the elite,

the faculty,

you know,

part of the philosophy faculty

of the University of Toronto,

part of the law faculty

of the University of Toronto,

the cabinet of the province

of Ontario,

who sits on the board

of very important companies,

who's just talking

to this mere itinerant

Jewish religious teacher,

who obviously is trying

to undercut him

in making Old Testament references.

And will Nicodemus

act like a member

of the elite?

Or will he say,

I need to know

what you're saying.

And in the narratives

in the Bible,

sometimes a fork

towards life is taken

and sometimes a fork

towards death is taken.

What fork does Nicodemus take?

He takes the fork

towards life.

And in verse 9,

he says,

how can these things be?

How can these things be?

And Jesus in verse 10 answers,

are you the teacher of Israel

and yet you do not

understand these things?

In other words,

he knows the words.

He's picked up the reference

to Isaiah and Ezekiel.

He knows the words.

He doesn't understand

what it's going to look like,

how on earth

it could possibly work,

how on earth

it could possibly be something

that Jesus knows something about.

He doesn't know these things.

In other words,

one of the things is

that people,

he's seen some of the miracles

that Jesus has seen,

but he hasn't understood

the miracles.

He doesn't understand

that the miracles

aren't just a mere display of power,

that they're actually,

in every case,

like a sign

that's pointing to something.

And he's merely just seen

the fact that miracles

have happened,

but he hasn't asked himself

a question as to

where the signs point to

and what God is trying

to communicate to him

through these signs.

And so Jesus continues,

Are you the teacher of Israel

and yet you do not understand

these things?

That's verse 10.

Verse 11,

Truly, truly,

verily, verily,

I say to you,

we speak of what we know

and bear witness

to what we have seen,

but you do not receive

our testimony.

If I have told you

earthly things

and you do not believe,

how can you believe

if I tell you

heavenly things?

No one has ascended

into heaven

except he who descended

from heaven,

the Son of Man.

And as Moses lifted up

the serpent in the wilderness,

so must the Son of Man

be lifted up

that whoever believes in him

may have eternal life.

So,

here's what Jesus is doing

in this conversation.

Andrew,

if you could put up

the next point.

Nicodemus has come

wanting to discuss

the sociological

and anthropological phenomenon

phenomenon of teachers

who teach about God.

He, in a sense,

is maybe trying to pay

Jesus a compliment

that even though

Jesus doesn't have

a PhD from Cambridge

and a PhD from Oxford

and a PhD from the Sorbonne

and that he's not really rich

and he didn't attend

the right schools

when he was a kid,

he's still a pretty smart guy.

And Jesus is trying

to bring Nicodemus

to the point

where he realizes,

and I'm putting it,

because if you're writing this

as your own notes

for yourself,

that's how I put it this way,

I am not in a position

to merely consider

different ways

to ascend to God.

I am not in a position

to merely consider

different ways

to ascend to God.

And it's been

the constant human desire

to figure out a way

to ascend to God.

Some of us want to assist,

you know,

human beings will talk

about ascending to God

through developing

fine aesthetic sensibilities.

Some of it will be

by, in a sense,

as if your wealth

will make you

somehow more God-like.

Some of it will be

through unbelievable

physical mastery.

Some of us,

it will be through mysticism.

Some of us,

it will be through rationalism.

Some of us,

it will be through science

and technology.

Some of us,

it will be through science,

finding out some principle

or some equation

that explains everything.

Some of us,

it will be through sacrifices

or religious activities

or mystical experiences

or all of these types

of things.

And Jesus says,

no one can ascend to God.

You're talking about

ascending to God

and you're stuck

with a stone

where there should be,

as your command center,

where there should be

something alive.

And this goes beyond

the text.

If you read the rest of,

I don't have time to do it

if you read

Pastor John 3.16,

but Andrew,

if you could put up

the next point.

Jesus is also going to

make the point

with Nicodemus

that human beings

are tragically addicted

to hiding

from the living God.

And I put it down,

because I want,

if I'm reading the notes,

I don't want to say,

my wife is tragically addicted

to hiding

from the living God

or my kids are,

or those Muslims

or the gays

or the transgendered

or the rich

or the people

who vote liberal

or,

because that's what we can do.

That's why I always put down

I,

often in my points,

right?

Because I want you

to write it down

if you want to write it down

and it's,

you're speaking

about yourself.

I am tragically addicted

to hiding

from the living God.

I mean,

just think about it

for a second.

One of the reasons

it can take a lifetime

to get to know

another person

is because we as persons

hide from each other.

I mean,

a husband and a wife,

even husbands and wives

who've been married

for many years,

there's things

they hide about themselves

from the other person.

And if we do that

to a person

that we're married to

that we see,

imagine how much

that reveals

about our own

tendency

to try to hide

from God.

And so here I am,

this is what Jesus

is going to talk about

verses 17 on,

the continuation

of the conversation

I'm just trying to give you.

So here,

here,

Nicodemus

is thinking

he can discuss

all these complicated things

but he hasn't looked

at his heart.

He hasn't realized

his heart is dead.

He doesn't realize

that he can't ascend

to God,

that that's not at all

what his position is.

And he doesn't even

understand that

his fundamental problem

isn't ascending to God

but the fact that

he's addicted

to hiding from God.

In fact,

one of the ways

to understand

the book of John

is that

one of the things

which has troubled

many people

is the way that

John keeps referring

to the Jews.

And what you have

to understand

about the book of John

when you read it

is that John,

basically,

there's lots of symbolism

in it.

And John is Jewish,

he's not anti-Jewish,

Jesus is Jewish,

he's not anti-Jewish,

and Jesus isn't anti-Jewish.

And John's gospel

is constantly filled

with Old Testament

references

that he uses

to show that Jesus

is what the whole Bible

is talking about.

when he uses

the word the Jews,

it's a symbol

for human beings

using religion

to hide from God.

Human beings

using spirituality

as a way

to hide from God,

the true and living God.

And that,

whenever you see Jews,

see human beings

organized

in their religion

and spirituality

to hide from God.

that's what he means.

That's how we make it

so that we can understand

how it's easy

for us to develop

church services

that are all about

an emotional experience,

that are all about

an aesthetic experience,

are all about

an intellectual experience,

that are all about

maybe having

some insight

about how to get

a promotion

or how to have

a better marriage.

But they're all

just examples

of moralism

and therapy

with a distant God.

So,

it's talking about

Nicodemus

is one of us.

And,

and so,

so Jesus

is going to

say here then

that no one

has ascended

into heaven,

verse 13,

except he who

descended from heaven,

the Son of Man.

And then in verse 14,

excuse me,

then in verse 14,

he says,

and as Moses

lifted up the serpent

in the wilderness,

so must the Son of Man

be lifted up,

that whoever believes

in him

may have eternal life.

And what he's,

and you can look

in your bulletins,

it's in the

Growing in Grace.

I give you the different,

I know it's going deeper,

I give you the different

references here.

It's a story

from the book of Numbers,

Numbers chapter 21.

Numbers 21 · chapter mention

And the Jewish people

are in the wilderness,

they're under God's judgment

because they didn't want

to enter the promised land,

they turned back,

and now they're under

another particular aspect

of God's judgment,

and as part of God's judgment

for their complete

and utter disbelief,

he sends serpents

as a means of his judgment,

and these serpents,

when they bite,

it's like an infestation

of serpents,

that when they bite,

they're going to bring death.

And they call out to God

for deliverance.

And so God says to Moses,

I will deliver my people,

I want you to take a pole,

and I want you to put the pole

in the center of the camp,

and I want you to make

an image of the serpent,

which is my judgment.

I want to have my judgment,

in a sense,

symbolized as a serpent,

and I want you to put it

on the pole,

like this.

And I want you to put

the serpent,

my means of judgment,

and your need to be judged,

and your need for deliverance,

and I want you to put it

on a pole,

and in the ancient Hebrew,

the serpent would have been red,

the color of atonement,

the color of blood.

And I want you to put it

on the pole

in the center of the camp.

And anybody who looks

at that serpent

that's been lifted up

and put in the center

of the camp on a pole,

and anybody who looks to it,

they won't die

from the serpent's bite.

They'll be delivered.

And Jesus is saying

to Nicodemus,

you come to me

thinking that you can discuss

religious anthropology

and religious sociology

and competing theories

of teachers from God.

You don't realize

that you have a heart of stone.

You don't realize

that you can't ascend to heaven.

You don't realize

that your fundamental problem

is that you're hiding from God.

You don't realize

that you can't fix it.

You want to ascend?

No.

You need God himself

to descend

and then to be lifted up

on a cross

so that those who look

and put their trust

that that will save them,

that they will be saved.

And then in John,

the next verse,

could you actually,

I put it down at the end,

Andrew,

can you fast forward

and put John 3.16

up on the screen, please?

Could you all say this with me?

For God so loved the world

that he gave his one

and only son

that whoever believes in him

shall not perish

but have eternal life.

Can you read that with me again?

It's, you know what,

no religion has a verse like this.

No spirituality

says something as profound

as this.

For God so loved the world

that he gave his one

and only son

that whoever believes in him

shall not perish

but have eternal life.

We want to have

a debate about God

and a debate about how to ascend.

God knows that what we need

is a savior

and that's what he provides

in the person of his son.

Now just before we go back to this,

just in closing,

some of you might be saying,

George, I thought this was

a Trinity sermon.

But you see,

this is why the ancients

were so smart

because they know

that what we want

is to treat God

like an object

that we can have mind games about.

But they weren't dumb.

This text actually perfectly models

how you start to get to know

the Trinity.

Now just,

the first thing about it

is that we human beings,

Andrew,

if you could put up that,

I think it's the fifth point.

When it comes to God,

we humans love

flat earth thinking.

When it comes to God,

we humans love

flat earth thinking.

I was going to try to come up,

I was going to have

a whole list of things.

I realize I have to be careful

with time in this service.

You know what just really

blows your mind?

So when I was coming here

this morning on the Queensway

and I took a corner

a bit fast

and as I took the corner

a bit fast,

you could feel,

I could feel my briefcase

and my other stuff

shifting a little bit,

right?

Because when you're moving fast

and things,

and you turn a corner,

things,

you know,

sort of move.

Do you realize that right now

while we're sitting here

feeling very,

very secure,

the planet is turning

at 1600 kilometers an hour?

1600 kilometers an hour.

One hour from now,

even if you've just sat

on your chair,

an hour,

this afternoon,

if you spend an hour

watching TV,

you've moved 1600 kilometers

in a circle.

You want something else

which is really,

really crazy?

That's just,

we're going like this,

1600 kilometers an hour.

That's how fast

we're turning around the axis.

You know how fast

we are moving through space?

Every second,

the Earth moves

30 kilometers.

Every second,

we go from here

to Carlton Place.

Every second.

But we don't feel anything.

We just feel very secure.

We're in one place.

It's really counterintuitive

to think that we're

on the outside of a planet

the outside of a planet

that's spinning

at 1600 kilometers an hour

while moving through space

at 30 kilometers a second.

And I can well understand

how many people

for a long time

had a hard time

believing that this

could possibly be true.

And, you know,

if you want to talk

to some of the people

who are in sciences

here in the church,

and try to talk

about the nature of light,

try to talk about

quantum things

and quantum particles,

if you want it,

like to understand

that human beings,

it seems so solid.

In fact,

most of us

is empty space

because of the way

atoms and all work

and that we're made up

of things that are

spinning around each other.

Like,

isn't that just unbelievably,

like reality,

is weird.

And yet,

when it comes to God,

we want flatter thinking.

Andrew,

if you could put up

the next point,

please.

The truth about God

as Trinity,

how are we doing?

Not that bad.

The truth about God

as Trinity

develops from precise,

prayerful,

careful thinking

on the data

of Scripture.

So,

just very briefly,

this text.

The Old Testament reference,

what does it very clearly say?

God,

only God

can make you

born again

or make you

have this new heart.

Only God can do it.

And at the same time,

Jesus says

that it's going to be

the Holy Spirit

that does it.

And at the same time,

he says that being born above,

that's going to be something

that God does.

And at the same time,

Jesus says

that when he goes up

on the cross,

he's going to be

the means by which

you have eternal life.

Well,

one moment,

God is going to do it.

The Holy Spirit

is going to do it.

Jesus is going to do it.

And at the same time,

it's very clear

that within the text

that they're all different.

When Jesus says

that he's descended

from heaven,

he doesn't mean

that he's come

from something

like something emotional.

Heaven,

for a Jewish person,

is being right with God.

It's being like

in a sense,

standing right,

just like I'm standing

just like with Brian.

Well,

I could have Brian

come and stand

right here beside me

and if I'm with Brian,

I'm in,

that's the same image.

You're in God's presence.

And Jesus says

he leaves God's presence.

So God is,

he's left God's presence.

So one moment,

Jesus is different than God.

Jesus has left God's presence.

God is going to have

to be the one

to save us.

God is the one

who makes us born

from above.

The Holy Spirit

is the one

who makes us born again.

Jesus is the one

who gives us eternal life.

And the thinking

about the Trinity

emerged

from careful,

prayerful reading

of the data.

And just as

with any human being,

any person,

we reveal ourselves

in bits and pieces.

And for me to know

the mystery of my wife

and for her to know

the mystery of me

is revealed over time

in many,

many different ways

by things we say

and the way we carry ourselves

and how we sit

and how we eat

and how we do this.

And the mystery of the person

is revealed

from all of this.

So it is that

the doctrine of the Trinity

is found in the Bible.

Jesus,

God doesn't write

an Athanasian creed.

He doesn't write

a book of systematic theology.

He reveals himself

in such a way

that our hearts are revealed,

that we have hearts of stone.

Andrew,

could you put up

John 3.16 again?

Could you all read this

with me again?

Actually,

before we read it,

you know what is so wonderful

about this text?

You can be very poor

and go to heaven.

You can be mentally challenged

and go to heaven.

You don't have to have

a university degree.

You don't have to be rich.

You don't have to be married.

You don't have to be single.

You don't have to have

a perfect sexuality.

You don't have to be famous

on the planet.

You don't have to have

athletic prowess.

None of these things

which matter to human beings

do you have to have

to be made right with God.

There's only one thing.

You must be born again.

And there is no one

so far from God

that Jesus isn't sufficient

to make them right,

to make you right with him.

And there is no one

so successful

or so much of a failure

that you don't need

to be born again.

And God does this

in the words of John 3.16.

Could you read it with me,

please, out loud?

For God so loved the world

that he gave his one

and only Son

that whoever believes in him

shall not perish

but have eternal life.

There's the gospel.

It's one of the greatest verses.

Buddhism doesn't have it.

Islam doesn't have it.

Hinduism doesn't have it.

Atheism and agnosticism

doesn't have it.

In fact,

I'm going to talk about this

more in another sermon.

Here's the incoherence

and the great aching need

that modern people have

but don't entirely,

can't articulate it.

Human beings descend from apes,

therefore love one another.

That doesn't make any sense.

Human beings descend from apes,

therefore love one another.

Human beings have this great sense

of their need for love.

And only the scriptures,

only a brilliant text

like John 3.16

explains our great need for love

and our great longing for it

and that God so loved the world

that he gave his one and only son

that whoever believes in him

shall not perish

because we have hearts of stone

but shall have eternal life.

God will give a heart,

a living heart.

Let's just stand, please.

I want to urge you

that if you have never given your life to Jesus,

there is no better time than today

to just, you know,

I'm not going to lead you

in a sinner's prayer

or anything like that.

If the Holy Spirit is convicting you

that you need,

just say, John,

just say,

Father, God,

I have a heart,

I have a heart of stone.

I want what George just talked about.

John 3.16,

I believe it.

I can't even know

if I remember all the words

but God,

what that talked about,

I want that to be for me.

And use your own words

and call out to God

and there is no better time

than today to do it.

No better time than right now.

What's stopping you

from doing it right now?

Let's just bow our heads in prayer.

Father,

thank you so much

that you are our creator.

Thank you so much

that you are our sustainer.

Thank you so much,

Father,

that you made us

to be in a relationship with you.

Thank you, Father,

so much that when you saw

that we desire to be like God,

when we, in a sense,

killed the command center

of our lives

and turned the command center

of our lives

rather than being something

connected to you

into being a heart of stone.

Thank you, Father,

that you saw our desperate need

and seeing our desperate need.

You loved us

and sent your son

to die upon the cross

to be the one

by whom

you can make us

right with yourself.

Thank you, Father,

that he took our judgment

upon himself.

He took our doom.

He took our sickness.

He took our alienation.

And he offered us

his life,

his health,

his strength,

his destiny,

his place for you,

with you.

Father,

thank you for this profound

act of love

and substitution

and exchange.

Father,

make us disciples of Jesus

who are gripped

by this gospel,

who are learning

to live for your glory.

Father,

make us disciples of Jesus

gripped by the gospel,

learning to live

for your glory.

And this we ask

in Jesus' name.

Amen.