Wednesday, January 25, 2023 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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God, we thank you so much for this evening. We thank you for the blessing of family.

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Thank you for food and fellowship. We ask that as we are gathered together to read from your word, that you would be here with us, that your spirit would illuminate your word to us.

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We thank you, God, for sending your son to die on the cross, raising from the dead to forgive us our sins and reconcile us to you.

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We thank you for sending a helper, a comforter, who guides us and teaches us and makes us mourn to the image of your son.

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We pray for all of these things as we look to your word and ask that you would be with us throughout the week.

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We thank you for the many, many blessings that you give us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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If you'll turn to Romans chapter one, verse seven real quick,

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I want to correct a typo on my paper. Romans seven, sorry,

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Romans one, verse seven. Romans one, verse seven.

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If you'll notice on your paper, underneath definition, I have all of the words typed out.

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So in the Old Testament, that's gonna be Hebrew. And in the New Testament, it is

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Greek. Dwight was good enough to point out that I had mistyped something. On New Testament where it says

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Christ equals Kyrios, that is incorrect. So Romans one, verse seven, it says to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from our

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God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So Kyrios is the word for Lord there, it's

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Lord. Just like in the Old Testament, Kyrios is the Greek version of Adonai, which means

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Lord. Christ is actually a different word. Is it Christos or Christus?

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So that's a different word there, I mistyped that. But Kyrios means Lord. So when you see Lord in the

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New Testament, that's the Greek word Kyrios, which means sovereign one. So I wanted to correct that before we go forward.

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So continuing on in our study, we're talking about the Trinity. And if you'll notice that first foundational point there is there is only one

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God. So we call this doctrine monotheism, one God. And so I've listed the verses that we've gone over there.

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There's only one God and this is foundational. And so whenever talking to cults or sadly even within the

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Orthodox Christian church, I think it was Ligonier that did a study, the state of the church.

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And there is a high percentage of people within the Christian church that do not affirm this doctrine or do not understand this doctrine.

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And so they get some of this wrong. They may say, we believe in three gods, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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And that's simply not true. We believe in one God, monotheism. So you'll wanna hit that point home whenever you're talking to people who don't understand the

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Trinity. We only believe in one God. Foundational truth number two is that there are three distinct persons who are called

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God. So in parentheses, you'll see there it says Trinity. So monotheism is focusing on there being one

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God and the Trinity is explaining that that one God is in three persons, three distinct persons.

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This is not tritheism or three gods. This isn't polytheism, meaning many gods.

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And so we believe in one God in three persons. And on this point, we often talk about the analogies that people try to use.

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So if you're talking about God being like something that's created, then we've reversed it.

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We can talk about created things being like God because they come from his mind, he created them.

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But to say God is like this thing, we're reducing God. And often the analogies fall apart.

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They don't really work. So if you say God, the Trinity is like water.

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It can be a solid, a liquid, and a gas. Well, that's all the same thing, just in a different role, a different state.

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And so that's one thing, right? It's not three distinct things. It's still one thing in different forms.

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That's called modalism, right? That God changes his function throughout time.

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And in the Old Testament, maybe it was judgment. And then in Jesus, he shows his love.

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And then in the Holy Spirit, he shows how he can guide and comfort. And those things are all true about God, the being of God, but it's separate.

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Another analogy you might hear is that of the three -leaf clover, right? One clover, but it's got three different parts, more like the apple.

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You've got the apple skin, and you've got the flesh of the apple and the apple core, but that's called partialism.

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It divides God up into three different parts. And maybe God the Father is 1 3rd

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God, and Jesus is 1 3rd God, and the Holy Spirit is 1 3rd. And when you add them together, you get one

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God. But that's not 1 3rd

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God, he is all of God. And yet he's a distinct person. So that's point number two, three distinct persons who are called

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God. There I give Old Testament verses and New Testament verses.

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So you can see that even in the Old Testament, while we mainly see God as one

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God, there's still enough in the Old Testament to know something is going on here.

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He's trying to tell us something. There are foreshadowings of another person.

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God is speaking to another person. So if you'll look still under that second point, kind of showing that there are three distinct persons, we talked about Jesus himself takes on the prerogatives of God, right?

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Jesus received worship. In the Old Testament, it says that you should only worship

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God. And even Jesus says that. Worship God alone, and yet he receives worship.

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Jesus forgives sin. And he even points to the fact that only God can forgive sin. But to prove that I can forgive sin,

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I'll tell you this man to get up and walk, which is harder, to forgive sin or tell this man to walk.

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So to prove that I can forgive sin, I'll get this man to walk. And he does it.

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He commands the man to walk and he does so, showing that he also has the ability to forgive sin.

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He also knows people's thoughts and he controls his own creation. And I say his own creation because there are places in the

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New Testament that it says about Jesus what God did in the

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Old Testament in creating the heavens and the earth, that Jesus did that. Jesus claims to be

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God, right? He has interactions with the Pharisees. And he says, before Abraham was,

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I am. He takes on the divine name, claiming to be God.

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And it wasn't that there was confusion and they thought he was claiming to be God because he could have cleared that up quickly.

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He was willing to die for that, claiming to be God. They accused him of blasphemy and he went to the cross for that.

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And then also the Holy Spirit is God. All throughout Acts, when

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Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit, he speaks about a person. I will send you a comforter and he will comfort you.

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In the John 17, when Jesus is praying and we get a glimpse into the

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Trinity, Jesus is praying to God the Father. And he talks about his glory that he had when he came to earth.

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So now we get to foundational truth number three. The three persons,

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Father, Son and Holy Spirit are co -equal and co -eternal. So what does co -equal mean?

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Anyone wanna take a shot at co -equal? And this one gets a little bit tricky and we'll dive into it.

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What about co -eternal? Is that one a little bit easier? Co -eternal, what does co -eternal mean?

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They've always been, yes. So co meaning together, they are eternal.

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They're all eternal. So when we think about Jesus, we think, well, he was born, right?

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He had a physical body and his body came into existence at a specific time.

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But when we talk about the Trinity, we talk about the three persons of the Trinity. The second person of the

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Trinity has always existed. Even before taking on flesh, he always existed.

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And so when we quote Psalm 102, the Lord said to my Lord, God is speaking to someone there.

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When Isaiah sees the throne room of God and he talks about Lord all capital and Lord lowercase, he's talking about two different people there that he saw.

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John says that he saw Jesus. Well, Jesus didn't have a physical body yet, but he saw the second person of the

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Trinity in the throne room. And so they are co -eternal. Now, co -equal, this one might seem a little bit different.

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We have God the Father. And if you think about John 3 .16, for God so loved the world that he what?

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He sent his only son, okay? He sent his son. There's something going on there.

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Did God the Father tell his son to do something? There are places in the

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New Testament where Jesus talks about being obedient to his Father, right?

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So it must be that the second person of the Trinity, Jesus is submissive because he's obeying his

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Father, right? He is obeying someone that is over him. Does this make

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Jesus any less than God the Father or the Holy Spirit? Absolutely not.

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And there's confusion in our culture when talking about family structures, right?

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When we say man and woman, we are co -heirs of eternal life, right?

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He says that in the New Testament. But there's a hierarchy there, isn't there?

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Where the husband has certain responsibilities that God gave to him.

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He is to lead his family. Does this elevate him in value? Absolutely not.

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But he bears the weight of responsibility and decision -making. But men and women are equal, right?

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We are equal in the sight of God. Someone once said that at the foot of the cross, the ground is equal, right?

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There's not a hierarchy in our value, but there is a hierarchy in our role.

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Trinity versus here. If I said in the beginning, how many of you think of Genesis?

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How many of you think of John 1 .1, right? They start the same.

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In the beginning was the word, right? That's John 1. In the beginning,

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God, right? So you can go either route. Let's start with Genesis 1. Yes.

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When you have a place where two girls share one body, children, or everybody.

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Not exact, but it's two beings in one body.

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Yeah. So he's talking about God. Conjoined twins. Twins that are conjoined. And oftentimes they'll have one body, but two separate minds.

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So it's not foreign to creation. You've got two distinct persons there, but they're joined or sharing one body.

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Yeah, they don't. Yeah, they disagree sometimes. You just go so far with the comparison.

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Yeah. So it's not out of the realm of possibility. Genesis 1 .1.

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So here it says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

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And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light.

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And there was light. And so we know the rest of the story there. But there in the beginning, we see the spirit is there in the beginning.

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So there's one person of the Trinity, the spirit of God. And often it does talk about him separately.

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And there are passages where it talks about God and the spirit of God, right?

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So then if you look at John 1 .1, who do we see at the beginning here?

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The word. In the beginning was the word. Genesis says, in the beginning was

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God. So he's making a statement here. This is the word of God.

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So in the beginning, you have the spirit of God, but you also have the word of God. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was

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God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him.

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And without him was not anything made that was made. So here, we see

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John speaking about a distinct aspect of God, the word of God.

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And he says that it was the word that all things were created through. I thought in the beginning, it was the spirit.

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The spirit hovered over the waters. That's true. And the word was there, and the world was created through the world.

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And all things were made through him, right? Well, he used the word him there, but he was just talking about words.

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I didn't know we were talking about people. Well, in the beginning was the word, capitalized. And obviously, he's talking about a person.

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The word was with God, and the word was God. And all things were made through him, a person, right?

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And so here, we see that Jesus, or the second person of the Trinity, was there at the beginning.

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So the son, when we talk about Jesus, we talk about his physical body, and his physical body started at a particular point in time.

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We often talk about the second person of the Trinity, prior to his birth, but there are places where it talks about this person.

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So the son existed prior to being born physically as Jesus. And so we already talked about in Isaiah, when

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Isaiah goes to the throne room, and he sees the Lord and his glory filling the room,

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John tells us that was Jesus, right? So the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, was there.

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John 12 is the chapter where John tells us that. John is interpreting

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Isaiah 6 through the light of Jesus. If you'll turn to Micah 5 .2.

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So there are people, Arians is a belief that sprouted up.

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Jehovah's Witness are a form of Arianism. And so they hold that Jesus is not

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God. He is a God, but he was created, right? So they believe that he's created.

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Oftentimes, they'll use the analogy of the sun. So you've got the sun, and from,

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S -U -N, the sun in the sky, and from the sun emanates heat. They'll use that analogy.

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And the heat is created by the sun. So they say that Jesus was created.

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And there's certain verses. So even if you talk about Genesis, in the beginning of creation was the word.

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So they'll say, sure, he was there at the beginning, but then God had to create him, right?

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Except for John 1 says that it was the word that created everything.

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So he pre -existed creation. But this one, this verse here, Micah 5 .2,

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takes it even a step further. So Micah 5 .2, and we often read this around Christmastime.

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But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler of Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

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Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth. So we know that this is talking about Jesus.

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The context gives us that. But this Jesus is one who is to be ruler of Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

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And so this carries with it, of old, of ancient days. There are other passages in scripture that tie this, specifically

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Genesis 14, the story of Melchizedek. Abraham's walking around in the wilderness and he runs into this high priest who has no beginning.

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And all of the context of that high priest is like Jesus spot on, right?

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The high priest of God is the King of Salem. And Jesus is the

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Prince of Jerusalem, which means New Salem. Melchizedek is the

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King of Peace. And Jesus is known as the Prince of Peace. He brings bread and wine.

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And what does Jesus do at the supper, communion supper? Bread and wine signifies body.

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Abraham gives a tithe to Melchizedek. And that's what we do as a tent that is established.

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Over and over, we see this priest that comes out of nowhere. And the New Testament says that Jesus is our high priest.

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But in the Old Testament, the priests had to come from the tribe of Levi, right? Well, Jesus is from the tribe of Judah.

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So how can he be a high priest? Well, it tells us his priesthood does not come from the priesthood of the

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Levites, but from a higher priesthood from Melchizedek who had no beginning.

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So this is talking about Jesus having no beginning. He is from ancient days of the old days, from old, from ancient of days, having no beginning.

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So here we see that Jesus has no beginning. He is not created. Turn to Revelation 22 and look at, let me double check that.

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I think I've got the wrong reference there. Yes, that's it.

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Thank you. So in Revelation, there's all of this imagery about someone riding on a white horse.

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If you look at 12, starting in 12, behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.

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I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

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He says this also at the beginning of Revelation, but these are statements about God. And all throughout

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Revelation, we see that it's talking about Jesus as well. And so you have the references to God, the being of God, but then you have references to the lamb, the alpha and the omega, the one to be worshiped, the one that takes the scroll.

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This is Jesus, the beginning and the end. And so Jesus is without beginning.

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He is the beginning because he is the one that creates. He is God. So he is not a created being.

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A couple of other references that we won't go into. Michael often talks about Jesus as Israel, Jesus as God's servant in Isaiah 49.

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And this is talking about one from old. And he exists before coming into his creation.

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He's talking to a second person. And then Psalm 110, we already talked about Melchizedek.

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David references Melchizedek. So let's go ahead and turn to Psalm 110. So this is a

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Psalm of David and it's a short one. So we'll go ahead and read it. Keep note of the words,

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Lord, which version of the word Lord is being used? The Lord says to my

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Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

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The Lord sends forth from Zion, your mighty scepter, rule in the midst of your enemies.

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Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments from the womb of the morning.

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The due of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.

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You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is your right hand.

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He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses.

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He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way.

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Therefore he will lift up his head. So verse one, the

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Lord, this is God, says to my Lord. So this is David speaking.

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David's the one writing this Psalm. And he's saying, the Lord says to my

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Lord. Yahweh says to my Adonai, my sovereign one, sit at my right hand.

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And then he goes on to say that this Lord is a high priest forever, right?

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We know in the Jewish system, each time the high priest died, they would have to replace the high priest.

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And this is the argument in Hebrews that Jesus is our high priest forever because he died and rose from the dead to be high priest forever, right?

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And he doesn't continually make sacrifices like the old way. He was the sacrifice.

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And so he's our high priest forever. And then here it says, the Lord is at your right hand in verse five.

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And this is again, Adonai. So the Adonai, sovereign one is at your right hand.

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He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. So this is someone that is king of kings, right?

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Lord of lords. In the New Testament, we know that to be Jesus, right?

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Jesus, who is a high priest forever, who has no beginning and he has no end.

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And so I wanted to point out another, going back to John 1, 1, excuse me.

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John 1, 1 where it says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. Our translations say what?

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And the word was God, right? The Jehovah's Witness translation has inserted, it says, and the word was a

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God. And they put a lowercase g there, meaning that there are many gods, right?

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And he was a God. But this cannot be because of all of the titles that are applied to him in the

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Old Testament and in the New Testament. And when the Mormons come knocking at your door, the elders that are barely old enough to shave, right?

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And I'm elder so -and -so. And they start talking to you about their priesthoods, right?

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And they'll say, well, I have the Levi priesthood or I have a

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Melchizedekian priesthood. They'll say, my priesthood is from Melchizedek. They separate it into two classes of priesthood, right?

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That priesthood is only reserved for God, the high priest.

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They say, there aren't two different priesthoods. And it's like karate where you've got to get up to your black belt.

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And I'm only in the Aaronic priesthood, but eventually I'll be a Melchizedekian priesthood.

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No, if you look, those titles, all of those titles are titles given to God, right?

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Are you gonna be a priest forever? No, one day you will die, right?

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But our high priest lives forever and he intercedes for us, right? So this doctrine of the

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Trinity has many, many applications on what it means for us.

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And we could go through all of the different things on what it means that God the Father sends the

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Son to die for us, to pay for our sins. And that he sends a comforter, a helper that would help us.

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This has applications for marriage, right? The wife is called a helper and a comforter, right?

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But we're co -equal, right? This has applications for government roles, for civic roles.

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Each sphere, while it may be co -equal, they have different roles.

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I think this doctrine has been lost, not only in the world, but in the Christian church and it reflects in our society because we don't understand how something can be unified and yet be diverse and separate.

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But it all stems from God who is one God and yet he's three persons.

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And each person has a different role, right? It's God who elects a bride for the

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Son. It's the Son that dies for his bride. It's the Holy Spirit that calls and draws the people in.

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And yet it's all God who does these things. Salvation is of the Lord. And so there's so much depth that can be found in the

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Bible about these things. And I think it would be good for us to meditate and to pray and to love this concept of the

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Trinity because it's who God is. And so I hope that this has been edifying to you and that think about these different truths.

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There's one God, three persons, and those three people are co -equal.

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They're not greater or less than, they're co -eternal and they all have different roles in our life.