Trinity Sunday

John 3:1-15 - Trinity Sunday - May 26, 2013 

We Speak of What We Know

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”  By this commandment, it is obvious enough that there is only one God. There is none beside Him.  Of course, even natural man is able to figure this much out by thinking about it.  But that isn’t what makes Him our God.  By using our mind, we can conclude that God exists.  Sure.  But it is not by thinking hard that we come to fear, love, and trust Him. 

Jesus was once asked by a Scribe, as recorded in Mark 12, “Which is the first commandment of all?”  Jesus answered by quoting from Deuteronomy 6: “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”   Jesus almost quoted from Deuteronomy word for word.  But He added something – not like He added to Scripture – No, but He clarified the meaning of Scripture.  He who Himself fulfills all of Scripture summed up what it means to love God with your heart, and soul, and strength by including the phrase, “and with all your mind.”  

See, it’s perfectly accessible to human reason that there is one God. 

Pentecost

John 14:23-31 - Pentecost - May 19, 2013 

The Holy Spirit Clears Confusion by Giving Peace with the Father through Jesus Christ

After God had rescued Noah and his family from the destruction of the flood, God told Noah and his children to spread out and fill the whole earth.  They didn’t.  Admittedly, they couldn’t have done so right away — and God didn’t expect them to.  It would take a few generations for three women to have enough children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to begin filling the earth.  They’d have to wait for God to bless them.  Well, their numbers grew.  They had big families.  God told them to be fruitful and multiply.  And they did, because God blessed them.  But instead of looking at their increase as a blessing come down from God, they looked at their increase as something to raise up to God, to show Him what they had become.  They got it all backwards.  They were proud.  And in their pride, instead of spreading out, like God told them to, they settled in the valley of Shinar and sought to make a name for themselves. 

The reason God gave them children was in order that He might bless their children.