Trinity Series - Sermon #3

If you have not been following this series, please go to the post for January 22 where an explanation of the format is given. Happy studying!

All of God:
Exploring the Mystery of the Trinity
Our Triune God

As most of you know, I spent 20 years at TVR Christian Camp in the NC Mountains. One of the great burdens of the job was the requirement to go snow skiing anywhere from 10 to 15 times a year at Beech Mountain or Sugar Mountain. Tough job, but somebody had to do it.

The winters were a good bit colder than they are here with typical winters seeing a lot more snow than we do here. Since the camp was located at about 3,000 feet above sea level and we would go up to 5,400 feet above sea level to ski at Beech Mountain, we found ourselves in the clouds a good bit. Here, we would just call it fog.

There is a climb of some 1,200 – 1,300 feet from Banner Elk to the top of Beech Mountain. It is more than that, but as far as the road is concerned, it is about 1,200 feet or so. You have to climb that distance in about 3 miles, so you can imagine how steep and how curvy the road is. Sometimes when we would take a group skiing on Beech Mountain, we would drive into the clouds. There is no way to communicate to you how thick that fog can be unless you have been in it. I have been driving on Beech Mountain when you could literally not see more than 10 feet in front of you. The white line on the side of the road was the only thing you could see, so you can imagine how hairy such a trip would be with a 500 foot drop off the side of the road just a few feet away.

That doesn’t mean the fog was all bad, though. When the temperature was below freezing, the moisture from the clouds would freeze on the trees. When the clouds would lift, they would, as you would expect, do so from the bottom of the mountain and go up. If you happened to be on top of Beech Mountain on a cold winter’s day when the fog lifted, you were in for a sight that is rarely seen this side of heaven. We called the moisture that froze on the trees ice fog, though most people call it hoar frost. On a brilliant sunny day with ice fog everywhere you could see and views for miles and miles in several directions from the top of Beech Mountain – what a treat!

We are in the beginning weeks of our series on the Trinity here at Grace Community Church. Some of you feel like you are in a fog. A thick fog. You may even feel like you are just a few feet away from taking a big plunge. Hang in there – the view will be worth it. Here’s the good news about what you are learning – or, not learning right now. The fog clears behind you. As you go up this mountain, you may be in a fog, but it is clearing behind you. What seemed rather abstruse last week is suddenly making sense to you this week. You are not exactly sure how it happened, but your understanding is growing. Just wait for the view at the top!

The first few weeks we have talked about why it is important to study the Trinity, and why it is so crucial that we have a precise understanding of this doctrine and not just a general sense about what it means that God is three in one. For the month of February, we are going to talk about our Triune God. Today we will learn – or, as the case may be – review the truth about this awesome God we worship and serve, this God who is one. For the next three weeks, we will consider the three persons of the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Today’s text is Acts 17:22-34. Some of you know the context of this passage. The Apostle Paul was in Athens when he came to stand before the Areopagus on Mars Hill where philosophers debated religion and philosophy all day. They were particularly pleased when a new idea came to the Hill. Some of the men realized that Paul had a new religion and thought it would be good to hear from him. In a very few words – at least all that we have of Paul’s presentation is confined to a very few words – Paul said a great deal about God that is absolutely verified throughout Scripture. We will read this passage, and then I want to talk about our great Triune God before we meet Him at the Lord’s Table where, according to 1 Corinthians 10, we will participate in the body and blood of Jesus. Would you please stand as we read Acts 17:22-34? (ESV)

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of
Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
26 And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us,
28 for ‘In Him we live and move and have our being;’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed His offspring.’
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent,
31 because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He as appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
33 So Paul went out from their midst.
34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

What do you think God is like – is He far away, or is He near? Is He someone we can know, or is He ultimately unknowable? Another question – Is God righteous and just, or is He gracious and merciful? Is He so righteous and perfect that sin cannot be allowed into His presence, or is He willing to forgive sin and welcome sinners to Himself? You know the answer to these questions, don’t you? The answer is YES! He is all of the above.

How is it possible to be all of the above? The answer is found in the Trinity. If God existed in some other form, that would be OK, of course – He is God, after all, and we are not. But He does exist as one God, yet three persons, which, according to Romans 3:26, allows Him to be both just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. We saw last week how very important it is for us to be as precise in our definition of the Trinity as our finite minds will enable us to be. We will be defining this great mystery – three in one – for several more weeks as this series continues. This morning we are going to simply look in awe at a God who is much bigger than we have known or, frankly, can ever know. Our appreciation will grow, however, as we consider the far reaches of His holiness and His goodness. We will also see, in these coming weeks, how the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed to us for our comfort and the deepening of our relationship with the Triune God.

When we speak of God’s greatness, we refer to His transcendence, which means that God is far above His creation and He is independent of His creation. For the first 1800 years of the church, God’s transcendence was emphasized. That’s why hymns that emphasized God’s greatness like “A Mighty Fortress is our God” were so prominent.

When one first considers the greatness of God, the temptation is to think that He can never be known or even approached. (vv 24-26) At Mars Hill, Paul told his listeners that God cannot be confined to places that man has built, like man-made temples. Indeed, God made the very people who made the temples! God doesn’t need anything from us, nor does He need anything in the entire universe in order to be fulfilled. He is self-sufficient and self-sustaining. He cannot be contained in buildings made by human hands. We ought to take this a step further and admit that God cannot be comprehended in a finite human mind. How can that which is created understand its creator unless the creator reveals himself? Can you imagine how foolish we look to God when our thoughts and comments about Him begin with something like, “Well, I just think God is such and such a way?”

It is not surprising that we would think like that because there is always a temptation to create God in our own image! But, He cannot be contained in our finite minds – He is infinitely beyond our capacity to understand – unless He reveals Himself to us, and fortunately for us, in addition to the reality that God is a transcendent God, He is also immanent – He is near to us, revealing Himself to us.

When we speak of God’s nearness, we refer to His immanence. To say that God is immanent is to acknowledge that He exists, and, in fact, remains in His creation and interacts with those He created. While God’s transcendence has been emphasized for the greater part of church history, His immanence has been featured in the church for the last 200 plus years. That is why we sing so many praise songs as if we are intimately acquainted with God, like the song David sang for our special – “Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit three in one.” Even though Chris Tomlin was acknowledging God’s greatness in His worship, there is an intimate feel to this song and to many of his songs.

And, well there should be. After Paul spoke of God’s transcendence, of His greatness, he quickly moved to say that God is near to us. (vv 27-29) He also acknowledged that there is a void in our hearts that we seek to fill. That is understandable – we are creatures and we seek to know and understand our Creator. Fortunately, God is not far from us! He makes it possible for us to know Him. Remember last week in John 8 when Jesus told the Pharisees that He spoke of what He had seen with His Father? Jesus revealed God very directly to us.

God is awesome and far above us – and, yet, He is near. Since we have the tendency to make God into our own image, you can see how easy it would be to get God’s transcendence and His immanence out of balance, can’t you? Those who focus more on God’s transcendence could end up believing that God is far too great to be concerned with the daily affairs of this world. One could conclude that God set the earth in motion and left us to our own petty devices.

At the other extreme, those who focus excessively on God’s immanence can see God in everything – including the chairs upon which you sit. Pantheists fail to distinguish between the Creator and the creation. To say that God is everywhere does not mean that He is a part of everything that He has created. We must worship the Creator – not His creation. Take care of His creation? Of course! Worship it? Absolutely not! We are responsible to be good stewards, but never fail to make the distinction between God and His creation.

So, is God transcendent or immanent? Yes. I suppose the question that we desperately need an answer to is whether God is so holy that He cannot look upon sin, or does He forgive and welcome sinners. Once again, Paul tells us that He is both. Let’s look one more time at Acts 17:29-31, then Jim McLaughlin will come to lead us in communion and to help us make sense of this paradox. Acts 17:29-31:

29Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the
divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by
the art and imagination of man.
30The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He
commands all people everywhere to repent,
31because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in
righteousness by a Man whom He as appointed; and of this He
has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.

For the conclusion of this sermon delivered by Law Professor Jim McLaughlin, go to our church website and access the sermon for February 1.