But two hundred years ago, one
of the chief sources of interest and conversation at all levels of society in
Finally, one of the elders
decided to get in contact with the presybytery of
Anyway the presbytery sent out
a committee to interview some of the members of the congregation. And it was
then the situation began to get complicated. Some thought the minister’s preaching seemed
less than sound, others insisted that there was
nothing wrong with it. Walking down a country road, they saw a farmworker in a
field if he thought the minister was guilty of Arianism. The farmworker thought
for a moment then said: “If you take one
sermon, on one Sunday on its own, you might get the impression that the
minister tends to a kind of Arianism. But if you listen, every Sunday, throughout
the year to all that he preaches, you’ll find he preaches the full gospel”
The presbytery committee
heaved a sigh of relief and went home and nothing more was heard of the case. The
point is: High matters of faith moved, interested and concerned ordinary people
in those days. high matters of faith.
Well, likewise, there are high
matters of faith before us this morning.
This is Trinity Sunday today.
The Trinity,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We heard the Trinity mentioned in 2 Corinthians
13.13 “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”.
Though today has a special
name, Trinity Sunday, we speak of the
Trinity every Sunday - in our opening prayers every Sunday we say ‘our Father’
together, we sing hymns in praise of
Jesus Christ, the Son, we call on the Holy Spirit to open our minds. We end the
service with a blessing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This morning in particular we
lift up our minds and hearts to think of the Trinity.
We lift, for a few moments our
gaze, widen our perspective, lift our minds to the awe inspiring glory of the
Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and think on everlasting, eternal things
this morning.
Just as we might, on a summer’s day, in an
alpine meadow in Switzerland lift our eyes from the flowers surrounding us, and
look beyond the trees, to the truly awe inspiring summits of the alps, snow
clad, far off in the bright morning sunshine, so this morning we look up to the
high summits, of
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
These are matters of great
heights.
And in fact, was only in the
3rd. century that the Church began to consider these things at all. The
leaders, the bishops, the deacons felt a pressing need to come together and
speak of the deep things of the gospel. So great councils were called, and under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the whole Church together thought and prayed about how
to put into words teaching about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Church lifting her mind to the great, glorious mysteries of the
highest things of Christian faith.
What they were really doing
was to begin to see
The Church continuing further
in its thinking, seeing more and more of the gospel, the good news of Jesus
Christ in the light of the great reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit
Trinity Sunday...........
It makes sense, I think, not
to try and say everything and get out of our depth. Blaise Pascal, the French
Christian thinker once said:
our imagination gets lost when thinking about the
power and wonder of God
It makes sense, I think, not
to try and say everything and get out of our depth. It makes sense just to take
a few words of Jesus and ponder them for a moment..... these
words of Jesus from John 14, verse 16.
The gospel as John declares
it, tells us that Jesus has come from the presence of God, as a man, as a human
being, living among us, living in perfect communion with the Father.
Now, for the first time, Jesus tells the disciples that He is going to return to the Father’s presence, What Jesus has told them is difficult for the disciples to understand, and they ask puzzled questions. They are upset, after these wonderful years together with Jesus, but what now, and where now
for
them ?
But Jesus says these words, we
read in John 14:
I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, who will stay
with you for ever. He is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God
Here in these wonderful words,
we catch a glimpse of the great reality of the Trinity Father, Son and Holy
Spirit,
Listen: I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, who will
stay with you for ever. He is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God
Jesus says to the disciples I will ask the Father, when He says: I will ask the Father, He is speaking as
the beloved Son declaring that He will ask His Father in heaven..... so in the span of these short few words,
what
we are hearing is the prayer of Jesus to the Father,
where
Jesus, the Son, asks His Father to give the gift of the Holy Spirit to the
disciples and to all who believe......... We catch a glimpse here, of Jesus’
perfect communion with the Father, and perfect trust in Him. And we catch a
glimpse of the depth of prayer......... What is the deepest prayer in the gospel ? Jesus’ prayer for the disciples and the believers
in John 17 ? Jesus’ prayer in
and
the Father hears and will, in short days bless this troubled world
with
the greatest gift of all, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit given to us..............
the
Son asking the Father, to give the gift of the Spirit, the Father in His
wonderful love, giving the Spirit................
See then, how, in these short
verses, we begin to enter the deep mysteries of the Father, the Son and the
Spirit.........
James Packer writes this about
the Holy Spirit:
I
remember walking to church one winter evening, and seeing the church building
floodlit as I turned the corner.
floodlights are placed so that
you can’t see them;
what you see is the building, standing out in the
darkness, with all its details picked out by the light, so that you can see it
properly.
Is
this not like the Holy Spirit Himself ? He is the
light, showing us, guiding us to Jesus the Son, and our loving Father.
In fact, if we step back a
little, we can add to this.
We can begin to see God’s plan
and purpose for the human race…..
for the gospel speaks to us of the great
loving movement of the God of grace and love, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
who
created us to find our true life in Him.
The Father’s gift to us is the
Spirit – who works within us, moves within us, and draws us into that fellowship with
the Father and the Son.
This is the gift of life
itself.
AMEN