We Believe in God the Father

Series: Growing Together in God's Grace 
January 6, 2013

Dear friends in Christ.

Every week, as we join together in confessing our faith in the Lord our God, we begin our confession by stating that we believe in God, the Father, Almighty.  Now, as you know, depending on which creed we use, we either say, “I believe,” or “We believe.”  The reason for this is that the Apostles Creed, which we use on non-Communion Sundays, was designed as a creed to be used and spoken by those who were confessing their faith as they entered into the membership of the church.  Thus the member to be would stand before the congregation—much like our Confirmands stand before the congregation today—and that member to be would confess before the entire congregation, “I believe in God, the Father, Almighty…”  The Nicene Creed, which we use on Communion Sundays because it speaks more fully about Jesus and the work that he did here as our Savior, was designed to be a corporate creed—a creed used by the congregation of believers to confess their collective faith in “God, the Father, Almighty…”  But now comes the logical question!  What do we mean when we confess that we believe in God, the Father, Almighty?  Though we speak these words each and every week and even though we hold them in our hearts as our confession of faith, the question still remains, “What do we mean when we confess that we believe in God, the Father, Almighty? 

Well, to answer this question, we want to turn to the Scriptures to better understand what we mean when we say, “We Believe in God, the Father, Almighty!  First, we turn to John 17:1-3 where John writes, “After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:1–3, NIV84)

In such beautifully simple way, Jesus reveals that belief in God is knowing who the true God is through Jesus Christ our Savior.  Just as we talked about last week!  We believe in God the Father Almighty because we know who he is through Jesus Christ, his Son.  We know that the Father is one of the persons of the Trinity.  We know that he is not the Son or the Holy Spirit and yet he is at the same time our true God.  Now, the interesting thing about belief is that people in all parts of the world believe in all kinds of Gods.  Some gods are idols made up of wood or stone.  Some are gods made up by men who said they had a dream or a vision.  Though these may well be people who sincerely believe in their gods, they do not believe in God, the Father, because they do not know him, or Jesus Christ whom he sent.

Yet believing in God includes even more than knowing who the true God is!  Take a look at 1 Thessalonians 2:13, “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe." (1 Thessalonians 2:13, NIV84)

When we come to faith in the Lord our God, we come to know who the true God is and what he has done for us.  We come to know this from the lessons and the accounts that our Lord recorded for us in his Word, and from this we accept that the Bible is God’s Word.  We accept that the Bible is the only source of our Salvation and that the Bible is the only place where the Lord has recorded his word for us.  This is what believing in God, the Father, Almighty, is all about!  It is about knowing who the Lord our God is, and accepting that the Bible is his word!

Now, having said this, let me address the question that always comes up every single time that I teach this lesson.  “Pastor, how can you know this for sure?”  Well, the simple answer is, I can’t know for sure.  I can only accept that the Bible is God’s Word through faith in God the Father, and because I have come to know who God the Father is through the Bible I accept that the Bible is God’s Word.  Now, I can’t prove that the Bible is God’s Word.  There is no scientific proof to demonstrate this as a fact.  However, when I compare the message of the Bible to every other religious book in our world, the message of the Bible is always different.  No matter how motivational, encouraging, uplifting, or instructional all the other religious books of our world might be, it is only the Bible that teaches; that we are by nature lost in sin and enemies of our God; that our God loved us so much that he sent his one and only son to take our place and bear the punishment that we deserved; that through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior all that we did wrong has been forgiven, we are at peace with God, our Father, through Jesus Christ, his Son,  and now moved by that knowledge we seek to live for our God out of love for him.  Every other religious book and religious teaching in this world teaches that in order to find forgiveness or salvation we have to take part in the work and contribute something (even just the slightest thing) in order for forgiveness or salvation to be applied to us.  This is the difference between the Bible and every other book and teaching in the world.  This is the difference between the way the Lord our God reveals himself to the human race, and how the human race perceives and seeks to understand who God really is.

As Christians who believe in God, the Father, Almighty, we know who the true God is, because he has revealed himself to us in his Word—the Bible—and because he has revealed himself to us in the Bible, we trust that all his promises are true just as the Centurion did.  Matthew tells us about him in chapter 8, beginning with verse 5: “When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” 7 Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.” 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour." (Matthew 8:5–13, NIV84)

In faith, the Centurion trusted that if Jesus simply said the word, his servant would be healed.  He trusted that Jesus’ words were a bond, a promise of what would happen, and it did.  His servant was healed at the very moment that Jesus spoke the Words.  The Centurion trusted Jesus’ promises in the same way that Abraham trusted the Lord’s promise that one day he would have a Son.  Though Abraham had to wait 25 years until Isaac was born, though he listened to his wife’s plan to have a son through her slave Haggar, and even though by the time the promise would be fulfilled their bodies were to the point that they were no longer able to have children, Abraham trusted the Lord’s promise that he would have a Son, and when he was 100 years old, the Lord fulfilled the promise and gave him a Son. 

This is what believing in God, the Father, Almighty, is all about.  It is about knowing who the true God is; the true God who has revealed himself through the Bible which we accept as his Word.  It is about trusting the promises that the Lord has give to us through his word—promises that the Savior has come; that the appearing of the Gentile  Wise Men is assurance that Jesus came even for the Gentiles like us; that through Jesus death and resurrection all our sins have been forgiven and we are at peace with our heavenly Father; that through faith in Jesus he will take us to be with him forever when he calls us from this life to our life by our Father’s side forever in his heavenly kingdom.

What a comfort it is to know that God, the Father, Almighty, is also our Father.  Though we have all had earthly Fathers who have affected our lives in one way or another, it is God, our heavenly father, in whom we believe, who longs to father us, nurture us, and help us through this life.  No matter what type of earthly father we may have had, we believe in God, the Father, Almighty, who is our heavenly Father, because, as we know from the prophet Malachi, he is the one who created us! (see Malachi 2:10)  We know that God is our Father because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who was sent to the earth by God, our Father, when the time was right.  He sent Jesus to the earth to be born under the Law so that he might redeem we, who were under the Law, that we might receive the full rights of sons and daughters of God, our heavenly Father. (See Gal 3:26 – 4:7).  Now, that we have been called to faith God our heavenly Father, by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, we have come to know Jesus, our Savior and our Brother, who has made known to us our heavenly Father.  Now that we have come to believe in God, the Father, Almighty, we find comfort and assurance that God our heavenly Father loves us, cares for us, strengthens us, disciplines us, teaches us, encourages us, and calls us his own. 

Now, if you would like to understand this concept of our heavenly Father’s fathering activity in your life, I have two books that I can suggest which can help you.  Now, you know that I don’t do this all that often. In fact, this is only the 2nd time I’ve suggested outside reading to you.  You also know that these are books that I have read and found to be a blessing to me and my family.  The first book is:  Wild at Heart, by John Eldridge.  This is a book written primarily for men, but it can also be a benefit for women to read.  It is a book that helps men better understand the wild heart that the Lord placed inside them, and how the Lord longs to father the heart of that son.  The second book is: You are Captivating, by Stasi Eldredge.  This book is written primarily for women, but an also be a benefit for men to read.  It is a book that helps women better understand their feminine hearts and the amazing strength with which the Lord has blessed them.  It is a book that helps women better understand how the Lord loves them and longs to father his beloved daughter.

Now, these books are by no means, Scripture.  They simply are written from a Christian and biblical point of view to help people better understand how God, the heavenly Father, works in their lives.  I recommend them to you because I have read them and they have helped me better understand my heavenly Father all the better.  They have taken me back to the Scriptures and made me study up on my heavenly Father and how he reveals himself in his Word.  They have even helped me foster a greater appreciation for all that my heavenly father has done for me in my life.  Thus, in reading these books, my faith in God the Father has been strengthened because they drove me back to God’s Word, and caused me to study it all the more.  I share them with you today so that you might do the same.

But regardless of what you do, you leave here today with a stronger belief in God, the Father, Almighty!  You leave here with a stronger faith in your heavenly Father.  You leave here, knowing all the more who the true God is because you know how he has revealed himself to you in the pages of the Scriptures which you have accepted is his Word.  You leave here with a greater trust and assurance that all the promise the Lord has ever made are true and have either been fulfilled in the past, or they will be fulfilled when Jesus comes again.  You leave here knowing that God, the Father, Almighty, is your heavenly father who longs to be a father to you, and help you to grow in his grace.  You leave here knowing that the God in whom you believe is the Father of your Lord Jesus who freed you from your sins so that you might live with your heavenly father forever.  Though today we won’t be confessing, “We believe in God, the Father, Almighty” in the Apostles Creed, we will be confessing that very faith as we join together to sing our faith in Hymn 270 on page 7 of your service folders.  Please stand and we will join together in singing our believe in our triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

What is our God Like?

Series: Growing Together in God's Grace

December 30, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

It has been said that what you know about a person usually affects the way that you feel about a person, and in most cases that seems to be true.  Take, for example, Abraham Lincoln.  He was the 16th president of the United States.  He was the President in Office during the Civil War.  He was the one who was determined that the United States of America should remain together as a single nation.  He was the one who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing those who were salves from their forced servitude, and putting into motion the events that led to the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, which finally Abolished Slavery in the United States.  He was the one who was assassinated at Ford’s Theater a mere 5 days after the Civil War came to an end.  Because of this knowledge, there are many who love Lincoln and hail him as one of the greatest Presidents our Nation has ever seen.  Though he was continually ridiculed and spoken against in his time, because of what we know about him from history, we are able to form our own opinion about him, and our own personal feelings about him have been affected in many ways by what we know.  Well the same thing is true about the Lord our God, our opinion of him is very much affected by what we know about him.  Thus, as we study the Scriptures before us today we will seek to learn about our God and answer the question, “What is our God like?”

To answer this question, we want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about God’s Characteristics and learn two basic ways that God’s nature is different than ours.  So, I invite you to grab your Bibles and turn to Matthew 28:19 which can be found on page 989.  As you are looking it up, let me give you the context of this passage.  It had been 40 days since Jesus rose from the dead, and Jesus and his disciples were standing on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus was giving them his final instructions and blessings before he would ascend into heaven.  While he was speaking to them he told them, (and we’ll read Matthew 28:19 together): “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19, NIV)

Just as Jesus began his ministry with the Father’s blessing and the Holy Spirit’s descending upon him, so also Jesus returns to heaven instituting the Sacrament of Baptism, proclaiming that all of his disciples should baptize people in the name of the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Thus, Jesus reveals that our God is three distinct and separate persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Thus, when we look at our God we know that the Father is not the Son.  We know that the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and we know that the Holy Spirit is not the Father.  Yet, even as we worship our God in three separate and distinct persons, we know that we do not worship three separate Gods but we worship only one God, as Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 6:4.  Turn with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy 6:4, which can be found on page 178 of your Bibles, and we’ll read this passage together also.  Again, as you look up the passage, let me set the context.  The Israelites have completed their 40 years of wandering in the desert and they are preparing to cross the Jordan and take the land of Canaan.  As they prepare, Moses is reminding them of all that the Lord has done for them.  In Chapter 5 Moses reviewed the Ten Commandments and now, in verses 4 of Chapter 6, Moses speaks about the Lord whom we serve as we follow his commandments.  And we read together: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV)

With these words, the Lord God reveals a very specific distinction between his nature and our nature.  He is one!  Though, He is three separate and distinct persons these three separate and distinct persons make up one individual God.  How this can be, we do not know we simply believe it and accept it by faith, because God himself has told us that he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons yet one God.  So, if we should ever take the Father out of the picture, would we still believe in the true God proclaimed by the Bible?  No, because we would only have the Son and the Holy Spirit and not all three.  What if we took the Son out of the picture and believed only in the Father and the Holy Spirit?  The same thing would be true.  We would not have the True God spoken of in the Bible.  What if we took the Holy Spirit out of the picture and only believed in the Father and the Son, would we still have the true God proclaimed by the Bible?  Again, the answer is no.  even though the Bible never uses the word Triune to describe our God, the Bible makes it clear that the God we worship is three persons (tri) yet one God (une), which gives us our Triune God 3 person in one God, just as Jesus tells us in the  Gospel of John: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. ” (John 16:13–15, NIV)

From all of these passages, we can clearly see the two basic ways that our God’s nature is different than our own.  Not only is the Lord our God Triune—Three Persons yet, One God—but also, as we have been taught since we were little Children, the Lord our God is spirit.  Because the Lord is Spirit, he does not have a physical body.  Even though Jesus came to the earth and took on our human flesh and blood, when he ascended into heaven, he returned to his spirit form.  Yet, the Lord our God is not some distant force sailing around the galaxy, he is a real personal being who hears our prayers and understands our needs.  He desires and even demands the most important place in our hearts and our lives.  He calls on us to worship him, praise him, and thank him for all that he has done for us.  He forgives us each and every time we fall in to temptation and sin against him, and he has chosen to reveal himself to us through the pages of the Scriptures so that we might gain a better understanding of who he is through the many characteristics that he reveals to us in his Word. 

So, let’s take another look at the Scriptures to see if we might discover all that the Lord our God wants us to learn about himself.  To do this, we will turn to Psalm 139 which can be found on page 618, and as you are looking up Psalm 139 on page 618, let me give you just a little bit of an introduction.  Psalm 139 is one of the many Psalms that King David wrote by the inspiration of the Lord.  It was given to the director of music for use as a song for worship in the temple.  It has even been called the Psalm of the All knowing and Ever Present God, and the reason for this will become clear as I read.  In fact, due to the length of the Psalm I invite you to follow along with me as I read:  “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ” (Psalm 139:1–24, NIV)

In such a beautiful way the Lord so clearly reveals that he is omniscient—all knowing—and omnipresent—present everywhere.  He reminds us that not only does he know everything that we say and do, he also knows us better than our friends, our family, even our own fathers and mothers.  He knows what we need when we need it, and he is always present with us, watching over us, protecting us, helping us, and ready to comfort us.  He is also the all-powerful God who created our inmost beings, who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs.  He is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to punish those who do not believe in him in the fires of eternal damnation, and he is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to bring those who believe in him to the halls of eternal life where we will live with him forever.

What more beautiful and comforting words could the Lord give to us as he reveals himself to us through his Word!  Yet, there are so many more passages we could chose today to teach us more about the Characteristics of our God.  The problem is, we are running out of time this morning, that is, if we feel we must keep our service as close to an hour as possible.  However, since that is our custom, perhaps just one final passage.  Turn with me to Exodus 34:5-7 on page 88.  Again, let me give you the background for these verses: Moses had been with the Lord on the Mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, during which time the people persuaded Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship.  When Moses came down and saw what they were doing, he broke the tablets, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, sprinkled it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.  Now, he had returned to the mountain with two new tablets of stone for the Lord’s commands where he had also asked the Lord to show him his glory, which is where we pick up as we read together: “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming,

“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5–7, NIV)

In such a beautiful way, the Lord our God reveals to us some of his most incredible characteristics.  We know of his compassion for us in his sending Jesus to be our Savior.  We know of his Graciousness that he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but he shows his love and his patience for us by giving us this time of grace in which to come to faith.  He shows his love and his faithfulness by continually protecting us from all harm and danger, and forgiving all our sins for Jesus’ sake.  Though the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished, through faith in him, we live in his love and faithfulness.  We see the Lord our God as the loving, caring, and gracious God he is. 

Thus, today, in the same way we have learned about Abraham Lincoln from history, we have learned what the Lord our God is like.  For from the pages of Scripture, we have come to know that our all powerful Triune God is a Spirit who reveals himself to us in the Scriptures.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

See Your Triune God at Work! (Genesis 1:1 - 2:3)

June 19, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

Did you know that today is a very special Day? Even though it is not Christmas or Easter, The Day of Jesus’ Baptism or the Day of His Ascension, the day of Transfiguration, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday or even the Day of Pentecost (which we celebrated last week) today is a very special day. It is a very special day because not only are we beginning a new sermon series based on the stained glass windows of our church, but most importantly because today is the day that we have specifically set aside in the Church Year to praise and worship our Triune God. Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, the day we take a closer look at the Work our Triune God has done as three persons in one God and one God as Three persons. Even though we regularly remind ourselves of the Work our Triune God has done and continues to do for us, today we specifically take time out of our lives to watch our Triune God at work as we take a look at the lesson before us in Genesis 1:1-2:3.

Now, normally, as you are opening your Bibles to Genesis 1, I would give you some background information and explanation as to what is going on so that you could better understand the context of what is taking place in our lesson. However, today, there is no background because before Genesis 1 there was nothing except for our Triune God. And even though we might have a fair number of questions as to what the Lord our God was up to during his time in eternity before he created the world, because he doesn’t tell us anything until he tells us about the beginning of us all. Take a look at Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, NIV84)

If these aren’t some familiar words! After all, these are words that we have known by heart since we were little children. These are words that made our parents smile when we first learned them in Sunday School or Christian Day School. These are words that we have cherished as we’ve grown from Children to Teens and from Teens to Adults. But sadly, these are also words that have sometimes been drown out by the cacophony of worldly ideas that bombard us on a daily basis. Since we were little children Television has been assuring us that the world is millions of years old and that dinosaurs and humans couldn’t have possibly lived at the same time, even though we know that our Triune God created everything that exists in six, twenty-four hour days, so then they would have had to live at the same time. Not only that, but if you received an education in public school, even though you received an excellent education, you were taught, especially in the last 20 years or so, you were taught to believe that science is king and that the theory that all living creatures evolved from a puddle of primordial ooze millions and billions of years ago. You were taught either subtly or openly, you were taught to believe that science is true and what God says about creation is not as true as you might have once thought.

Just think about how many times you’ve been tempted to try to harmonize the Trinity’s Work of Creation with Science’s ideas of Evolution. Just think about how many of your children have come home from school openly questioning the truth of creation and favoring the “facts” of evolution because it is “scientific”. Just think of how doubting creation has led people to doubt other parts of the Scriptures and even caused people to fall from faith because they came to the logical conclusion that if one part is false the whole of Scripture cannot possibly be true. These are the reasons why we have gathered together to take a closer look at the work our Triune God did back at the beginning of Creation. Take a look again at Genesis 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1–2, NIV84)

Wow! In just a few short words Moses establishes the fact that it was our Triune God who began the world at the beginning! Now, if we take a look at the Hebrew for this passage, the first three words in Hebrew are, (spelled Phonetically) “beraysheet barah Elohim” Beraysheet means “beginning” or as we translate, “in the beginning.” Barah means, “he created” and Elohim, which is the subject of the sentence, means, “God.” So, in three short words, Moses tells us that until Elohim, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth, there was no time as we know it. There was nothing but our Triune God in eternity until the very beginning (Berahsheet) when he, Elohim (Barah), began his creating work, creating time and light out of nothing, and calling this world into existence, again out of nothing, as a formless and empty lump of clay, so to speak which he would then mold to his plan in the next 5 twenty four hour days. This is the work our Triune God began on day one!

“But Pastor,” you might ask, “how can you possibly know that the Triune God was at work? There really is no mention of the Trinity in these verses.” Now, if you asked me this question I would simply say, you are absolutely right! There are no specific mentions of our God being Triune or the Triune God at work. However, there are hints of God being Triune. Now, as I already said the name used for God here is, “Elohim.” This name is used 31 times throughout the account of creation. In Hebrew Elohim is actually plural and has been described as a plural of majesty, which means that God may be referring to himself as Kings and Queens of old referred to themselves as “we” rather than “I” like the common people did. Elohim has also been called a potential plural setting forth the vast potentialities of the Godhead, which would include mystery of the Holy Trinity. In themselves, these explanations cannot prove that our God is Triune, they can only hint at the fact that our God is Triune. However, when we take a look at the unity of the Scriptures and how our God describes himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit throughout the Bible, we can then look back and say that Father Son and Holy Spirit had to be at work in creation because our God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This would have been apparent to God’s people because, as we learn from reading the Old Testament, they believed in God as their Father. They believed that God would send his Son who would be there redeemer, just as the offerings foreshadowed. They even believed in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who worked in their midst. They knew and believed in God as three persons and yet they also believed that they only had one God as Deuteronomy 6:4 so beautifully confesses, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV84)

Today, we know and believe the same thing! Just as we will confess in the Athanasian Creed in just a few short minutes, we believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We believe that they are all co-equal in majesty and glory, yet they are not three who are God but they are one God in three persons and three persons in one God! So, as we look at these words from Genesis we see God the Father at work creating and calling things into existence out of nothing. We see God the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters, and we see Jesus at work as the instrument of creation because the apostle John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1–3, NIV84)

It is because of all of this (and many other passages of Scripture) that we believe, teach and confess that our Triune God was at work in creating the world for us. Just take a look at verse 3-5: ‘And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (Genesis 1:3–5, NIV84)

Verse 3 begins with the phrase “And God said,” which occurs ten times in the creation account. It shows us the manner by which God worked, namely, by his command and through his word (Hebrews 11:3). The phrase “God saw that the light was good” is noteworthy. In verse 4 it refers specifically to the light God created, but it also occurs six more times in the creation account. God is not telling us with these words that he was pleased with himself for what he had made, as if he were a human craftsperson stepping back to admire his work. He relates this information for our sake. He keeps us mindful of the wisdom and order that he put into his creation, which he was preparing for us to inhabit. He reminds us of the initial perfection of that creation, which is now spoiled by sin.

That was the first day. From there our Triune God went on to separate the waters on the earth and the waters in the sky. He called forth the dry ground and produced vegetation on it! Never planting see, but simply calling it forth with his word. He set the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens for the purpose of giving us light and helping us to tell time in weeks, months, and years. He filled the skies with birds and the waters with fish, and finally he created all the land animals, and then formed Adam from the dust of the ground and Eve from one of Adam’s ribs.

This is the work our Triune God did for you and me! He created the perfect world for us to live in and enjoy. Though our first parents ruined God’s creation when they brought sin and death into the world, our Triune God continued his work for us. He promised a Savior and sent prophets to renew and reiterate his promises for centuries. When the time came our Triune God saved us through the Work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, our Triune God continues to proclaim that message to you and me through his Word—the Bible—of which we have many, many copies. He continues to proclaim his message of salvation through pastors and teachers whose work it is to tell the story of salvation, teaching the young children and building up the faith of all the members of the congregation. And he continues to share his message of salvation through each and every one of you!

For now that you have seen the Trinity at Work in the creation of the world, you are reminded of all the work he has done to free you from your sins and bring you the sure and certain hope of eternal life. Who better than you to carry that message of salvation wherever you go? Who better than you to tell the work of the Trinity in your life calling you to faith, strengthening you with his Word, sustaining you in your faith, and leading you to your heavenly home? Who better than you to proclaim the Work that your Triune God has done? This is the work that our Triune God has given to each and every one of us—to make disciples of all nations, to teach them what Jesus taught us, and to baptize them in the name of our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is today is a very special day! Though it is not Christmas or Easter, or any other holiday of the Church Year, it is Holy Trinity Sunday. Today is the day that we have set aside to specifically remind ourselves of all the work our Triune God has done for us. Today is the day we specifically give thanks and praise to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all he has done for us. Today is the day we continue to carry the message of salvation with us wherever we go so that we are always ready to tell others the reason for the hope we have in our Triune God.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

What is God Like?

May 30, 2010
Theme: What is our God Like?

Dear friends in Christ.

It has been said that what you know about a person usually affects the way that you feel about a person, and in most cases that seems to be true. Take, for example, Abraham Lincoln. He was the 16th president of the United States. He was the President in Office during the Civil War. He was the one who was determined that the United States of America should remain together as a single nation. He was the one who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing those who were salves from their forced servitude, and putting into motion the events that led to the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, which finally Abolished Slavery in the United States. He was the one who was assassinated at Ford’s Theater a mere 5 days after the Civil War came to an end. Because of this knowledge, there are many who love Lincoln and hail him as one of the greatest Presidents our Nation has ever seen. Though he was continually ridiculed and spoken against in his time, because of what we know about him from history, we are able to form our own opinion about him, and our own personal feelings about him have been affected in many ways by what we know. Well the same thing is true about the Lord our God, our opinion of him is very much affected by what we know about him. Thus, as we study the Scriptures before us today we will seek to learn about our God and answer the question, “What is our God like?”

To answer this question, we want to take a look at what the Bible has to say about God’s Characteristics and learn two basic ways that God’s nature is different than ours. So, I invite you to grab your Bibles and turn to Matthew 28:19 which can be found on page 989. As you are looking it up, let me give you the context of this passage. It had been 40 days since Jesus rose from the dead, and Jesus and his disciples were standing on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus was giving them his final instructions and blessings before he would ascend into heaven. While he was speaking to them he told them, (and we’ll read Matthew 28:19 together): “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19, NIV)

Just as Jesus began his ministry with the Father’s blessing and the Holy Spirit’s descending upon him, so also Jesus returns to heaven instituting the Sacrament of Baptism, proclaiming that all of his disciples should baptize people in the name of the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus reveals that our God is three distinct and separate persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, when we look at our God we know that the Father is not the Son. We know that the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and we know that the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Yet, even as we worship our God in three separate and distinct persons, we know that we do not worship three separate Gods but we worship only one God, as Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 6:4. Turn with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy 6:4, which can be found on page 178 of your Bibles, and we’ll read this passage together also. Again, as you look up the passage, let me set the context. The Israelites have completed their 40 years of wandering in the desert and they are preparing to cross the Jordan and take the land of Canaan. As they prepare, Moses is reminding them of all that the Lord has done for them. In Chapter 5 Moses reviewed the Ten Commandments and now, in verses 4 of Chapter 6, Moses speaks about the Lord whom we serve as we follow his commandments. And we read together: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NIV)

With these words, the Lord God reveals a very specific distinction between his nature and our nature. He is one! Though, He is three separate and distinct persons these three separate and distinct persons make up one individual God. How this can be, we do not know we simply believe it and accept it by faith, because God himself has told us that he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons yet one God. So, if we should ever take the Father out of the picture, would we still believe in the true God proclaimed by the Bible? No, because we would only have the Son and the Holy Spirit and not all three. What if we took the Son out of the picture and believed only in the Father and the Holy Spirit? The same thing would be true. We would not have the True God spoken of in the Bible. What if we took the Holy Spirit out of the picture and only believed in the Father and the Son, would we still have the true God proclaimed by the Bible? Again, the answer is no. even though the Bible never uses the word Triune to describe our God, the Bible makes it clear that the God we worship is three persons (tri) yet one God (une), which gives us our Triune God 3 person in one God, just as Jesus tells us in our Gospel Lesson today: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. ” (John 16:13–15, NIV)

From all of these passages, we can clearly see the two basic ways that our God’s nature is different than our own. Not only is the Lord our God Triune—Three Persons yet, One God—but also, as we have been taught since we were little Children, the Lord our God is spirit. Because the Lord is Spirit, he does not have a physical body. Even though Jesus came to the earth and took on our human flesh and blood, when he ascended into heaven, he returned to his spirit form. Yet, the Lord our God is not some distant force sailing around the galaxy, he is a real personal being who hears our prayers and understands our needs. He desires and even demands the most important place in our hearts and our lives. He calls on us to worship him, praise him, and thank him for all that he has done for us. He forgives us each and every time we fall in to temptation and sin against him, and he has chosen to reveal himself to us through the pages of the Scriptures so that we might gain a better understanding of who he is through the many characteristics that he reveals to us in his Word.

So, let’s take another look at the Scriptures to see if we might discover all that the Lord our God wants us to learn about himself. To do this, we will turn to Psalm 139 which can be found on page 618, and as you are looking up Psalm 139 on page 618, let me give you just a little bit of an introduction. Psalm 139 is one of the many Psalms that King David wrote by the inspiration of the Lord. It was given to the director of music for use as a song for worship in the temple. It has even been called the Psalm of the All knowing and Ever Present God, and the reason for this will become clear as I read. In fact, due to the length of the Psalm I invite you to follow along with me as I read: “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. ” (Psalm 139:1–24, NIV)

In such a beautiful way the Lord so clearly reveals that he is omniscient—all knowing—and omnipresent—present everywhere. He reminds us that not only does he know everything that we say and do, he also knows us better than our friends, our family, even our own fathers and mothers. He knows what we need when we need it, and he is always present with us, watching over us, protecting us, helping us, and ready to comfort us. He is also the all-powerful God who created our inmost beings, who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. He is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to punish those who do not believe in him in the fires of eternal damnation, and he is the God who can and will use his unlimited power to bring those who believe in him to the halls of eternal life where we will live with him forever.

What more beautiful and comforting words could the Lord give to us as he reveals himself to us through his Word! Yet, there are so many more passages we could chose today to teach us more about the Characteristics of our God. The problem is, we are running out of time this morning, that is, if we feel we must keep our service as close to an hour as possible. However, since that is our custom, perhaps just one final passage. Turn with me to Exodus 34:5-7 on page 88. Again, let me give you the background for these verses: Moses had been with the Lord on the Mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, during which time the people persuaded Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship. When Moses came down and saw what they were doing, he broke the tablets, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, sprinkled it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. Now, he had returned to the mountain with two new tablets of stone for the Lord’s commands where he had also asked the Lord to show him his glory, which is where we pick up as we read together: “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:5–7, NIV)

In such a beautiful way, the Lord our God reveals to us some of his most incredible characteristics. We know of his compassion for us in his sending Jesus to be our Savior. We know of his Graciousness that he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but he shows his love and his patience for us by giving us this time of grace in which to come to faith. He shows his love and his faithfulness by continually protecting us from all harm and danger, and forgiving all our sins for Jesus’ sake. Though the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished, through faith in him, we live in his love and faithfulness. We see the Lord our God as the loving, caring, and gracious God he is.

Thus, today, in the same way we have learned about Abraham Lincoln from history, we have learned what the Lord our God is like. For from the pages of Scripture, we have come to know that our all powerful Triune God is a Spirit who reveals himself to us in the Scriptures.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN