5/26/24 John 16:12-15 “The Mystery of the Trinity”

23 May 5/26/24 John 16:12-15 “The Mystery of the Trinity”

5/26/24    John 16:12-15       “The Mystery of the Trinity”

Have you ever noticed how your wants and desires change as the years go by?  I first noticed this when I was about 12 years old or so.  One summer I wasn’t interested in my boyhood toys that I had loved the summer before.  My desire for toys seemed to get more expensive after this and this would be just the beginning.  When I got to be about 18 or 19, my desire to play sports took a dive as my desire for more money went on the increase; then came the desire for things for the family.  I think that you can name your own progression through your own personal changes.  Never the less, we have all changed or if you are young, you will change.  I think that this is the way God made us.  With all these changes, hopefully, we have had lots of growth.  One of the changes that I have noticed in my older age is that I don’t have to know why things happen anymore.  I used to have to know why.  I think that as I get older, I realize that many times there isn’t rhyme nor reason as to why this happens or that happens.  Anyway, today is Trinity Sunday and we are going to take a look at John to see what he says about the Holy Spirit.  Let’s see if we can find another reason that our God is so great.

Here is a riddle for you from Lynn Malone.  A customer at a 7-11 Store took 4 items to the counter and was told the cost was $7.11.  The customer said it seemed strange that the store name and the total were the same so he asked how the clerk arrived at the answer.  The clerk said he multiplied the prices and it came to $7.11.  The customer insisted that you can’t do that and that he should have added the prices.  The clerk said ok but the answer will be the same; exactly $7.11.  What were the four prices?  Or here’s an easy one.  Each child in a family has at least 3 brothers and 3 sisters.  What is the smallest number of children that might be in the family?  Or here’s another one.  3 people check into a hotel.  They pay $30 to the manager and go to their room.  Suddenly the manager remembers that the room is only $25 so he sends the bellhop up with a $5 refund.  On the way the bellhop reasons that $5 would be hard to split between 3 people so he pockets $2 and gives each person $1.  Now each person paid $10 and got back $1. So, the paid $9 each, totaling $27.  The bellhop has $2 totaling $29.  Where is the missing $1?  Remind me to give you the answers next week.  These riddles are difficult and may be hard to figure out.  This is like when we try to figure out the Trinity.  We have to be willing to disregard our normal logic.

Before we begin today, I ran across a great explanation of the Trinity from Martin Dale.  This is for those who still have to try to answer the question ‘why’ for everything and it is an oversimplification.  I think we all know what an egg is and we would all agree that an egg has 3 basic parts.  First there is the shell.  Would you call the shell an egg?  Then there is the egg white.  Would you call the egg white an egg?  Then there is the yolk.  Would you call the yolk an egg?  You probably would and I agree.  The egg is actually made up of all 3 parts, the shell, the white and the yolk.  The egg is incomplete without one of these elements and yet you would call all of these individual parts an egg.

The Trinity is the same way.  The Godhead is one just as the egg is one.  Yet it is made up of 3 persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; just as the egg is a shell, a white and a yolk.  Christians believe in one God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Now if we separated the shell from the white and then the white from the yolk, would we have 3 eggs?  No, it would still be one egg.  It is the same way with God.  If we separate the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, we will still have only one God.

Anyway, I thought this was a rather neat explanation so I thought I would pass it on.  The word trinity is not found in the Bible but it was a concept that formed because we have 3 parts of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  It is these 3 parts of God that separate us from most if not all other religions.  For instance, Muslims get really upset when they think about how we have 3 Gods.  They don’t understand and they don’t want to understand.  Others like the Jehovah’s Witness and Mormons try to pass themselves off as Christian but they don’t believe that Jesus is God or in the Trinity.  We are the only religion in the world that has a triune God.  I hope it stays that way and it grows and grows.

As we study the Trinity, there are some basics that we need to understand.  These are some hard truths and many people have fallen away because they cannot accept and embrace them.  The first is that all that belongs to the Father, belongs to the Son.  Jesus had been hammering this point to the disciples for three years.  Now they are gathered in the upper room for the final discourse.  Notice that John handles the last evening with the disciples differently than the other Gospel writers.  There is no last supper scene.  There is the foot washing and this last conversation that lasts for five chapters.

This is one of those times when Jesus is talking only to His disciples and us because we are His disciples also.  They, like us, do not really get it although we understand it a lot better after the fact.  It was hard for them to understand because nothing like this had ever happened before.  This was new to them.  They knew the prophecies but there had also been many false prophets.  When they finally realize that Jesus is the Son of God, they still cannot wrap their minds around just what this means because it is so enormous.

Jesus says in verse 15 “All that belongs to the father belongs to me.”  These disciples had to semi hide in order to meet like this because they knew that the authorities hated Jesus and they might try to do something.  There would always be apprehension when they were in Jerusalem.  So, there were a lot of emotions flowing at this time.  Jesus knew that this would be His last time speaking with them.  Therefore, He goes over all the important teachings that He can and the first order of business here is that He is God, period.

You have to understand this also.  You need to understand it in your heart.  I read one of my text books from seminary and the author had an interesting concept if you can believe that can happen in one of my text books from seminary.  He said that in the Bible, and I think we can apply this to us, all logical reasoning is found in the brain.  However, all things related to the soul including soul reasoning comes from the heart.  I can apply this to me because much of what I read in the Bible might not pass the logical brain test but I know it’s true.  I know for a fact that it is true.  It is just this feeling I get and can’t explain.  It comes from the heart. It comes from the Holy Spirit.

This is where you have to be.  Once again, I had a discussion with an area pastor who told me that the first part of Genesis didn’t happen and no one in their right mind believes this in our modern world.  Well, I still do because I understand it with my heart.  God is God.  He did everything that He said He did.  Are some of the things in the Old Testament hard to understand?  Yes!!  What about the virgin birth, is that hard to understand?  Yes!  What I am saying is trust God!  Don’t try to nitpick and prove every little detail because you can’t do it.  You can only trust God for everything.  I have never, never known Him to be wrong yet.

So, everything God has belongs to Jesus.  This in turn leads us to where Jesus tells us that everything that Jesus has belongs to the Holy Spirit.  This was impossible for the disciples to understand for a couple of reasons.  First of all, they really couldn’t imagine that Jesus was going to die in just a few hours.  And secondly, if Jesus wasn’t going to die there were no sense in thinking about any replacement, let alone someone like the Holy Spirit.  While these guys weren’t ready for what would happen, they were about ready for the Holy Spirit to take control of their lives.

It is hard for us to realize in our hearts that the Holy Spirit has everything that Jesus has.  I am a leader in this misconception because I’m always using the name Jesus when I should be saying the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit who comes to us when we are lost.  It is the Holy Spirit who is everywhere on earth at all times.  Jesus might have had one limitation when He walked the earth.  He was confined to his human body and couldn’t be in two places at the same time.  However, He sent back the Holy Spirit who can do this.  The more you break down this plan of God’s, the more you have to realize how absolutely fantastic it really is.

Now let’s complete the chain.  What belongs to the Father belongs to the Son.  What belongs to the Son belongs to the Holy Spirit.  Then what belongs to the Holy Spirit belongs to the believers.  I think that this really baffled the disciples.  I don’t think they had a clue as to what Jesus was talking about until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them.  I have heard say that it is hard to understand why these men who walked so close to Jesus didn’t get it until Jesus was dead.  I think we are way too harsh on them.  They sort of understood who Jesus was but they couldn’t grasp the enormity of it.  These were not highly educated men.  They were as common as folks today.  Having the disciples catch on to this in its entirety would be like asking them to understand and explain the workings of an internal combustion engine.  It wasn’t going to happen at this time.  But soon Jesus would give them the Holy Spirit and suddenly they would understand.

We have many people like the disciples today.  As a matter of fact, they are far worse.  Think of all the people who want to change the Bible.  Think of all the people who reinvent God to fit their world.  Think of all the people who just scoff and laugh at Jesus.  Sometimes I feel like I know how Noah must have felt when he built the ark.  The problem that these people, that I just mentioned, have is that they cannot accept the Holy Spirit!  Just think about this for a minute.  If these people accepted the Holy Spirit, they wouldn’t have to change the Bible.  They would have no need to reinvent God to fit their world.  Their world and God’s would be the same.  They would be like the disciples after Pentecost.

We don’t have to look far to find these people.  Hopefully these people come to church so the journey may begin for them.  Then what happens when the Spirit gives us a new life?  What happens when He starts to share His wisdom and power?  Have you ever noticed how excited the person is who has just accepted Jesus as their personal savior?  They are so full of energy and love for the Lord.  They have been transformed out of their old life.

The disciples started preaching to everyone.  They helped everyone they saw.  They healed people and they raised the dead.  Have you ever wondered why we don’t worship Paul or Peter who did all the things that Jesus did?  It is because they did it in the name of Jesus who had died and risen again.  They only worked through the Holy Spirit who had given them this power, this knowledge.  This is why I have questions about our world today where Christians are doing so many things but it doesn’t seem like they have the power of the Spirit.  There are some who do have the power of the Spirit but we don’t hear about them because our media is not Christian.  We have our work cut out for us but it is not impossible.  As a matter of fact, it shouldn’t even be that hard with the Holy Spirit.  Through Him you can do anything.

We are about to head out into the summer.  Many times, people miss a lot if not all their church during the summer.  This is the time when it is important that you guide your life with the truth of Jesus.  No matter whom you meet or what you see or do, do it in the name of Jesus Christ.  Let the Holy Spirit grab you and take you to places you never dreamed possible.  He is a true miracle worker.  Then after you have helped at least one person a day, notice the sly way I try to institute a goal for you, glorify God with it.  Don’t hide it under a bushel basket.  Tell people that all glory goes to God.  Give Him all credit even if it is something as small as an idea.  Try to start to think in terms of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Things will happen when you embrace and love the Trinity.

I think the key to this passage is in verse 12 where Jesus tells us that He has much more to say but we cannot understand it at this time.  I think there are many times when this is so true.  If God told us all there was to know, we would not be able to survive.  It would be too much.  All we can do is rely on His word.  Trust and believe everything we have been taught in the Bible. Trust in what we learn when we listen in our prayer time.  Everything that God does, He does for the good.  Nothing bad can come from God.

God loves you so much that He gave us this concept of the Trinity to help us understand Him a little better when we begin to believe.  The Holy Spirit is working on everyone in the world to get them to this point.  When you stop and think about it, this is a lot of love that God gives to all people.  At the same time that He is doing this, He is answering your prayer, whether it is big or small.  He is helping you in every aspect of your life.  This is a lot of love that He gives you as an individual.  Let yourself get filled with this love and spread it to someone close or someone you have just met but share this wonderful feeling, this wonderful God.  Jesus, we thank you and praise you for first loving us.  Let’s pray.