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The Trinity-Driven Church |
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Written by Pastor Darrell Cooper
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Friday, 01 August 2008 14:56 |
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2 Corinthians 13:11-14
May 18, 2008 - Lindsborg Cov.
“The Trinity Driven Church”
(Community)
Sermon Outline
I would like to begin today with the end. By that I not only mean the end of today’s passage, but the end of the service. If you look inside your bulletin you will find an order of worship there. At the end of the order you will find the word “benediction”. Benediction is just a big, fancy word that means blessing. Most of us are familiar with that. The blessing is the part at the end of the service where the pastor raises his arm up over the congregation and prays or speaks a blessing from the heart of God onto the people of God.
One of my favorite blessings from Scripture that I like to use as a benediction is taken from today’s passage. It is the last verse in the book of Second Corinthians. It says, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
Now, this is a very interesting verse because it is the only blessing in the entire Bible that addresses all three members of the Trinity in a single verse. If you study the Bible carefully you may notice that it is fairly rare for all three members of the Trinity to be mentioned in any one passage, let alone a single verse.
And, I think it is appropriate that we talk about this passage today because today is what we call Trinity Sunday. Trinity Sunday is the day in the Church calendar when the Church universal focuses on and talks about our God who is three in one. We believe that there is one God who exists in three persons, and we call this concept the Trinity or the Godhead.
Now, I acknowledge up front that this is an extraordinarily difficult concept for us to understand. However, I also want to assert that it is extraordinarily important. It is not so important that we fully understand it, but it is absolutely critical that we believe it.
So, in order to begin getting our heads around this concept of the Trinity a little bit, I want to take us from the end, all the way back to the beginning. If you would like, you can turn with me to Genesis 1:26-27. I want to read these two verses to you and then do a couple of quick lessons. First, a grammar lesson and then, for lack of a better term, an anthropology lesson.
Genesis 1:26-27 says, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
OK, pop quiz. Who is talking in this passage? (Pause for response) Right. God is talking. And who is God talking to? (Pause for response) God. He is talking to Himself, isn’t He? Do you ever talk to yourself. I think many of us talk to ourselves sometimes, but probably not quite like this.
Look again at verse 26 and pay careful attention to the pronouns. “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” Notice that God, while talking to Himself, refers to Himself as “us” and “our”. The word “us” is a first person, objective, plural pronoun. The word “our” is a first person, possessive, plural pronoun. In other words, God is referring to Himself as a community. So, in the very first chapter of the Bible we already see a hint that God is His own self-contained community.
That is very interesting, but now I want you to notice the nouns in this verse. “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. The word “image” and the word “likeness” are objects of the preposition, but notice that they are both singular. This is very significant. Notice that God did not say, “Let us create man in our images, in our likenesses.” No, there is only one image and one likeness, even though God refers to Himself in the plural number. In other words, grammatically, God is referring to Himself as a plurality of one. Once again, in the very first chapter of the Bible we see indications that while there is only one God, He exists as His own self-contained community.
Now for the anthropology lesson. If you would, go back to verse 26. In verse 26 God said He was going to create man in His own image and likeness. Verse 27 tells us exactly what He then in fact created. It says, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
It is very significant to note that when God created us in His own image He did not just create individuals; He created a community. Since God is His own community, then when He went to create mankind in His own image he created the first human community.
If you drop down to Genesis 2:18 we read, “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’” I think we can all attest to the truth of that statement, can’t we? We all know what it feels like to be isolated from other people. And the reason it is not good for man to be alone is not just that we get lonely, but more importantly it is why we get lonely. We get lonely because we are created for community.
Adam was created in God’s image, but it was an incomplete image. Likewise, Eve was created in God’s image, but it was an incomplete image. Since God is a community Himself then man was not complete until he too was a community.
The doctrine of the Trinity, then, is the assertion that there is one and only one God but that He exists in three persons. So, He is both a plurality and a unity. This is very confusing to our little brains, and it has caused no small amount of confusion throughout Church history, even leading to various kinds of heresy.
It is important for all of us to understand that as followers of Jesus, we do not believe in three different gods. We are not polytheists. We do not believe in a father god, a son god, and a holy ghost god. No, we believe in one and only one God. It is just that this one true God exists as His own community. This is extremely important to understand as it is foundational to many other doctrines throughout Scripture.
So, we see in Scripture that God has existed for all eternity as His own perfect, self-contained community. We refer to that community as the Trinity. When He chose to create mankind He opened up that community for the first time and invited His creatures in to enjoy that community. Throughout history He has invited certain people into that community.
At first He invited individuals and families. He of course invited the very first family, Adam and Eve. Later, He invited Noah and his family, and then Abraham and his family. When Moses came along He invited a whole nation, the nation of Israel. Finally, with the coming of Jesus, He invited the entire Church, both Jews and Gentiles. In essence, He has now invited everyone in the entire world to come and be part of His eternal community.
Now, we all know that throughout history many people, both individuals and groups, have rejected God and His invitation to join this Trinitarian community. However, one thing that God has made very clear from the beginning is this: to reject the community of God is the same thing as rejecting God Himself. To reject the people of God is the same as to reject the person of God.
We find evidence of this all through the Bible. In Genesis 12:3 God is speaking to Abraham and God promises him, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So, God is inviting Abraham and his family into His eternal community, and when He does, He so closely associated Himself with that community that He says, “If people treat you badly, I will treat them badly. If people treat you well, I will treat them well. You belong to me now, so if someone attacks you, they are also attacking Me, and I will take it very personally.”
This is true all throughout the Old Testament, and it is true in the New. For example, in Acts 9:3-5 we read the story of how Saul became Paul. You might remember the story. At first, Saul hated Christians. He did everything he could to crush the Church. He arrested Christians, put them in prison, murdered them, and generally persecuted them. He did this until one day, while on a mission to imprison more Christians, he encountered the risen Christ.
“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied.”
Saul may have said in his defense, “But Lord, you don’t understand! I am not persecuting You. I am persecuting these delusional people who claim to be your followers!” But Jesus corrected Him and said, “No, these are My people. If you attack them, you are attacking Me. And I take that very personally!”
Finally, in 1 John 4:20-21 we read, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” Once again, God so identifies Himself with the community of His people that He says, “If you don’t love other people in My community, you do not love Me either.”
Imagine if you heard someone say, “You know, I just love the Holy Spirit, but I have no use for God the Father.” Or, what if someone said, “I worship and serve God the Father, but I just don’t trust that Jesus character.”? That would be silly, wouldn’t it? You cannot separate them in this way, because they are three distinct persons in one united Godhead. It is like that commercial on TV for the ½ Price Store: “It’s the same thing!” One cannot love Jesus and hate God at the same time, because they are the same being. God is an inseparable community.
Perhaps I can illustrate it this way. Suppose our church were looking for another pastor. So, we formed a search committee and we interviewed a supremely gifted candidate that we all agreed would serve us exceptionally. So we extended a call to him and said, “We would love for you to come and be our new pastor, but we don’t feel the same about your wife. So, please don’t bring her when you come.” Do you think he would be offended? Of course he would! Do you think he would even consider accepting an invitation like that? No. He would not. And it would never even occur to us to make an offer like that, would it. Why not? Because we understand that a man an his wife are an inseparable community. To call a pastor is to call his wife as well. Right? We all get that. It is so basic to our understanding that it is assumed.
So, why is it that we often do not hesitate to separate ourselves from the Body of Christ? For example, have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t need to go to church to worship God. I can worship Him all by myself out on the fishing lake or out camping in the woods. In fact, that is where I connect with God best, out in nature.” Have you ever heard someone say something like that? Or how about this: “I am a very spiritual person, but I don’t have any use for organized religion.”
What they often mean by that is that they want to practice their religious faith apart from their community of faith. Now, that may be fine in some other religions, but it is completely nonsensical in Christianity. It is completely nonsensical to say, “I am a Christian, but I don’t attend church.” It doesn’t make any sense at all to say, “I love Jesus, but I don’t want anything to do with His followers.” It is completely nonsensical to say, “I believe in God, but I have no use for organized religion.”
Let me put this as simply as I know how. If you are not part of the community God is forming, you have no part with God. To reject the community of God is to reject God Himself, because He has invited us to come and be part of an eternal community, an inseparable community.
Jesus modeled this for us in His earthly ministry. When He began His ministry, one of the very first things He did was to call disciples and begin to build a community. There simply were no lone ranger Christians. If you said to a first-century Jew, “I am a follower of Jesus but I don’t hang out with His disciples,” he would have thought you mad. He would have thought that you had lost your mind, because you simply could not follow Jesus by yourself. You could not do it then, and you cannot do it now.
It is simply not possible to follow Jesus by yourself. It cannot be done. Why not? Because what does it mean to follow Jesus? It means to build and maintain an ongoing relationship of obedience. It means to obey the things He commanded us to do. And what did He command us to do? Love one another; pray for one another; bear one another’s burdens; encourage one another; forgive one another. The list of one-another commands goes on and on, and obviously it would not be possible to obey these commands in isolation. We simply must join the community because that is the only context in which you and I can know, love, worship, serve, and follow the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
What I am trying to do here is tie together the doctrine of the Trinity with the doctrine of the Church. I am trying to demonstrate that they cannot be separated. In fact, the doctrine of the Trinity is foundational to the doctrine of the Church. I would go so far as to say that one cannot be a Christian and reject the Trinity, just as one cannot be a Christian and reject the Church.
You cannot be a Christian and reject or deny the Trinity because to do so would be to reject the very identity of the One you claim to serve. That is who Jesus is! He is a member of the triune Godhead. And you cannot be a Christian and reject the Church because to do so is to reject the community that is part of who God is. God so identifies Himself with the community of His people that to reject the Church is to reject Jesus, the only one who can save us.
Have I beat that dead horse enough yet? I emphasize this today because it is foundational to who we are as a people and yet it is often neglected or dismissed by too many who claim to be Christ-followers.
Now what I would like to do is take us all back to our passage in 2 Corinthians 13:11-14. In these four short verses Paul issues a series of five commands. From these four verses I want to paint a picture of what this community God is building is supposed to look like. Listen as I describe the Church of Jesus as Paul instructed us to be.
To begin, let me say that this community that God is forming is not a perfect community. In fact it is made up of 100% sinners. This community is far from perfect. But, it is a community that aims for perfection. These are a people who are very intentional about becoming more like Jesus. It is a community which actively listens to God and seeks to obey His commands.
Now, these people do not agree on everything. In fact, they probably do not agree on most things, but they agree together on the most important things and then they major on the majors. They exalt the essentials. They focus on the core truths of the faith.
This is also a community of peacemakers. These people live in peace with both insiders and outsiders. It is not that they never experience conflict. In fact, there is near constant conflict. It is just that they have become experts in conflict resolution. These are a people who make peace wherever they go.
These are a people who are friendly to each other, extending a warm welcome to one another whenever they get together. They also keep in contact with brothers and sisters in other places, maintaining a sense of solidarity with the larger family of believers worldwide.
The relationships within this community are characterized by love, peace, grace, joy, and deep fellowship. Finally, when they gather, people, both insiders and outsiders can sense God’s presence among them. Why? Because God’s presence is, in fact, among them. The God of love and peace is indeed with them.
So, the question I have for us is this: Do you think that description fits us? Are we that kind of community? Are we at least on the way to becoming that kind of community? I certainly hope so, because it is my sincere desire to be part of a community like this and I want our church to be this kind of community.
So, if you share my desire, perhaps that begs the question, how? How do we as God’s people move toward becoming this kind of community? Well, the answer to that question is extraordinarily simple. The path to becoming this kind of community is obedience. Put as simply as I know how, we will be this kind of community to the degree that we obey God’ commands.
Verse 11 indicates that “the blessing of God’s presence is contingent on the obedience of his people.” (NIV Application Commentary) Again, the blessing of God’s presence is dependent on the obedience of God’s people. Listen to what verse 11 says. “Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.” For those of you who are computer programming types, this is an if-then statement. The blessing of God’s presence is dependent on the obedience of God’s people.
I have said this many times before, but I need to say it again now. Please understand that I am not advocating works-oriented righteousness. I am not saying that we must earn our salvation. I am not saying that if we are good enough then God will like us. No, salvation is always a free gift of God’s grace which we receive through faith and repentance.
“Keeping the commands of 13:11 does not make one a Christian; rather, being a Christian means that one will keep these commands.” (NIV Application Commentary) Why? Because what does it mean to be a Christian? Again, it means to be a follower of Jesus. And what does it mean to follow Jesus? It means to walk as He did and to obey His commands. So, we will only be the kind of community Paul describes in today’s passage to the degree that we obey God’s commands.
In closing, let me summarize by saying that God has always existed as His own self-contained community. Now He has opened up that community and invited us as Christians into that community. And here is the beautiful thing: we are most like God when we dwell together in united and peaceful community. This is why Jesus said, “They will know you are Christians by the way you love one another”. When the world begins to see us building this kind of community it will sit up and take notice, because when we dwell together in a united and peaceful community, they begin to see the very face of God Himself.
Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
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