Trinity, Water & Light

People think they understand everything they need to understand about how the world works. I’ve never met a person who didn’t think they pretty much had it figured out. Including me. We’re all a bunch of know- it-alls. I’ll tell you I’m not, I’ll say clever things like “the only thing I know is that I don’t know.” I’m still pretty sure I do, though.

When my mom married Bob Hart, I was seven years old. They went on a honeymoon to the Wisconsin Dells. I stayed with my Grandma and she took me outside and pointed at the moon, “Your mom is up there on her honeymoon.” I was amazed. When they came back, they were telling stories about meeting native Americans in the Dells. That’s when I learned there were Indians on the moon. Fact.

The world is a thoroughly logical place, right? Things that are true are true because the evidence proves it. There are no square circles, there are no round squares. 

Then some contrarian makes a metal sculpture just to blow our mind. Look at it one way and it’s a perfect circle, look at it another way and it’s a perfect square. So much for the world fitting inside our tiny little box. Or maybe our grandmas just told us things that weren’t quite true. 

But we walk around thinking we got it all figured out. I think we all do this kind of thing with God. We think we know everything about God we need to know.

35 years ago I was in Bible college and I had a friend who was very philosophical. We’d have these deep conversations and he really stretched me—I grew so much in my faith wrestling with everything I thought I knew with him. He made me think. But something happened. It wasn’t all at once but at some point during the next 15 or 20 years he seemed to lose his faith. He was going through a particularly hard time and he came over to my house, we were sitting in my living room drinking a couple beers, he said he didn’t know what to do. And I said, “well, you know what I’m gonna say, right? You know what I believe you need to do.”

He said, “What? Jesus and all that stuff? None of that works for me anymore.”

Those words haunt me to this day. Not because I think they ring true at all—they seem completely hollow to me—but he believed it. He really thought he knew everything he needed to know about Jesus and there was nothing to it. He really thought he had tried Christianity and found it to be empty.

But I knew him. I knew he put more stock in his doubts and his personal experiences than he did in what God has given us in Jesus. He trusted his doubts more than he ever trusted his faith. 

I’ve known a lot of people like that. You probably have, too. So obsessed with what they think is wrong with the world that they miss the one good thing in it. They miss the Gospel.

G.K. Chesterton said 'The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.'

I’ve always liked that quote, but what do you think it means? What is “the Christian ideal?” Is it acting like a Christian? Is the hard thing the perfect morality of keeping the 10 Commandments? Is it perfect attendance at church worshiping God, dutifully reading your Bible and praying every day without fail? Not killing anyone, not cheating on your spouse? Is it successfully avoiding all your favorite vices? Is that what’s hard about Christianity? Being good? Is that what it means for Christianity to be difficult and left untried? I think that’s how I used to understand the quote.

But are real Christians people who never sin? Let me put it a different way: are the best followers of Jesus people who don’t need Him? People who have no need for His grace and forgiveness and sanctification because they’re so squeaky clean already? Have I laid it on thick enough in my question that you know where I’m going with this?

Jesus said He came for the lost, the sick, the ones who need forgiveness and mercy. He said He didn’t come to condemn sinners but to save them. 

You want to know what the hardest thing about Christianity is? It’s not the rules. The law. Those are easy for us to get our head around—impossible to keep perfectly—but easy for us to understand. The thing that blows our fragile little minds is grace. Mercy. That God wants to forgive us when we break His rules. When we do the things we know we shouldn’t have done. When we hurt the people we love. We don’t want to forgive ourselves. When people hurt us or the people we love, we don’t want to forgive them, either. And we certainly don’t understand why God would forgive us.

In The Beginning Last week we started this series in Genesis—I only got to the first three words. In the beginning. We looked at how as Christians we’re supposed to read the Old Testament, we have to read all of Scripture, through the lens of Jesus Christ. It all points to Him. The New Testament is the divinely inspired commentary on the Old Testament, so we looked at how the first three words of the Bible are treated in the New Testament and in other parts of the Bible and we found something amazing. Those first three words should be all caps. IN THE BEGINNING is the same as saying “IN CHRIST.” In 1st John we have a retelling of the creation account and we’re told that Jesus was there, that He’s the Word of God incarnate. In the beginning was the Word. Christ.

And then there was a point in last week’s message where I talked about how we need to stop reading the Bible as if it’s all about us. As if the big revelation of the Bible is that we should try to be like all the Bible characters—be like Noah, and David, and Gideon, and Jesus. Like it’s a bunch of morality lessons.

But the strangest thing happened last week when I got to this part of the sermon—it’s the first time I’ve had this happen. When I said, “we’ve got to stop being judgmental” and asked “What are we supposed to do instead of judging people and pointing out their sin and trying to make them feel guilty?” I said, “We’re just supposed to tell everyone that God loves them. That’s why He sent his Son into the world.” When I said that, some people started shaking their heads. Like, “no, no, no.” They couldn’t help themselves. I’ve never had people disagree so strongly with their body language to something I said in a sermon before. It was bizarre. 

It was as if they were saying, “No, Pastor Frank. We have to tell people they’re sinners. That’s our job. To point out people’s guilt and shame.”

The Gospel is offensive, but it’s not offensive like that, not in the way that other things are offensive. It’s offensive because grace and mercy and forgiveness are offensive. We don’t understand those things. They offend us. We understand revenge and shame and condemnation and punishment. God understands those things, too. He is as perfectly prone to justice as He is mercy. He is perfectly just. But He handled it in the most offensive way imaginable—He applied all the justice for our shame and sin—He applied it all to Jesus on the cross. You and I get mercy, forgiveness and honor because Jesus took all our punishment and guilt for us. And all those sinners out there in the world—He did the same thing for them. It’s our job to tell them THAT.

We’re probably getting back to one of those parts where you think you already know what I’m telling you so you can’t really hear what I’m saying. There’s an old saying, “we can’t learn what we think we already know.”

My friend thought he knew all about this Jesus stuff, too. But when it came down to it, he didn’t know as much as he thought he did—the helpful parts.

The Gospel is the good part I’ve talked to a bunch of you at various times over the years, when things weren’t going so well for you and maybe you feel off the wagon or said or did something that you weren’t proud of. In those times, I always have to remind you that your perfect score card isn’t what Jesus is looking for—He’s looking for you to trust Him, to have faith in what He did for you. For you to turn back to Him instead of running away and trying to hide. We’re so quick to forget these words: You are forgiven. That’s why we have to show up here every week to hear them again. That’s why we have to be in God’s Word, so we can read about His grace. That’s why we have to spend time with our Christian friends, so they can remind us about His mercy. That’s why we have to constantly cut each other slack and tell each other that we’re forgiven because of Jesus. That’s our job.

So last week we got through the first three words of the Bible. We found Christ in those words and it was beautiful.  Let’s see how far we can get in Genesis chapter one this week—maybe we’ll actually finish the entire first verse…

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said,“Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.” Genesis 1:1-3

Okay, that’s far enough, no way I’m getting any further than that. Last week was three words, this week it’s gonna be three whole verses!

You’ve heard those words before. But just like last week, there’s a lot more going on here than it might seem at first glance. We already found by looking at 1st John that “In the Beginning” for Christians is to be understood as a reference to the Word, to Christ. So we have Jesus. Then we have God in the next phrase “God created the heavens and the earth” and this is clearly a reference to God the Father. Jesus constantly referred to God the Father, the creator of heaven and earth. So Father and Son… you probably see where I’m going with this but don’t tune me out.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Yep. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Right there in the opening sentence of the Bible. The Trinity. It’s amazing how many Christians go their whole life without realizing the Trinity is in the Old Testament. There it is, right at the beginning.

God has always been three in one. Three persons united in one essence. Three persons, one substance—one God. He didn’t evolve into the Trinity. He has always been the Three in One and He always will be.

Sometimes when I talk about the Trinity people will say something like, “Just because you say something doesn’t make it so. Three can’t be one, it’s illogical. There’s no such thing as a square circle or a round square.”

How about if we admit that an infinitely almighty God might be more complicated than the limited perspective of His creatures can comprehend.

Something else I think is fascinating is what it says about the Holy Spirit. It says He was “hovering over the waters.” The word for “hovering” is the same word that’s used elsewhere in the Old Testament to describe how a bird flutters over it’s nest. The Spirit is “fluttering” over the water. It’s important to read each part of the Bible keeping the rest of it in mind—which is why we need to be familiar with the whole thing. That’s why I’m encouraging everyone to read the whole Bible this year, cover to cover, even the boring parts—it’s the only way to be able to understand any part of it in context. So, where else in the Bible is there a reference to a bird and water? I can think of a couple really big ones. 

After the flood, Noah released a dove. It let him know that the flood was over. 

And at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove. 

Creation, The flood, and Jesus’ baptism. In all three of these passages, the Holy Spirit is active in creation to bring about life—in all three the Spirit is like a bird fluttering in the air connected with water. 

When Peter talks about Baptism, he connects it with Noah and flood. 1 Peter 3:20 says,

“God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you.”

Baptism which now saves you. What did the flood do? It washed away wickedness and sin. This is what happens in baptism, too. After the flood, there was new life, re-creation. This is the promise and hope of our baptism as well. The Holy Spirit seals us and fills us. Being baptized into Christ creates something new, new life, re-creation, salvation.

God links His presence with His creation. He doesn’t just zap us with spiritual power like the Force. We’re not gnostics. We don’t think the material world is bad and only the invisible spiritual world is good. It’s an age old problem. Half the New Testament is written to correct the mistakes of the gnostics who thought the idea of God becoming a flesh and blood human being was absurd. But this is how God has always given His gifts and blessings to people. He does it through His creation. Through means. 

Modern day gnostics have a problem with believing God actually does anything in baptism—they think it’s just symbolic. Modern day gnostics have a problem with believing God actually does anything in Communion—they think it’s just a memorial. But God really does His work through these sacraments. This is the way the world that God created works. You can’t read the Scriptures without noticing that God gives His blessings to His people through creation. When Jesus saved the world, he really came into the world, in real flesh and blood, He died for real on a real cross, and rose from the dead—for real. In time and space. We’re not gnostics or mystics or spiritualists.

But we also don’t practice magic. The power of baptism and power of the Lord’s Supper are not in the ritual, the power is in God’s Word and His promises. God is the one who does the work, not us. The power is in His Word. 

And His first recorded words in time and space are in today’s text: “Let there be light.”

Most of us read this verse and think, “Yep. God created light. Derpy do.”

Don’t skim over those words. “Let there be light.” This is the Gospel. This is everything.

Back to John chapter one:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

This is telling us something about those words from Genesis.

We’re supposed to see a connection between Jesus, creation and Light.

In 2nd Corinthians 4:6 St Paul tells us this:

“For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.”

That’s how we read the beginning of Genesis as Christians. The first words of the Bible are the revelation of God’s glory in the face of Jesus. Apart from Christ, apart from God and His Word, there’s only darkness. Outside of Jesus, we’re all in darkness. Without the Gospel, we’re formless and void. Until we hear the Words.

What God says, happens. God’s Word creates what He says. When He says “let there be light” there is light and the light is good.

This is how salvation and forgiveness happen—this is how the Gospel works. Jesus says, “follow me” and they follow. Jesus says “Lazarus come forth” and a formerly dead man comes forth. Jesus says “be healed” and they are healed. Jesus says “your sins are forgiven and guess what?” Their sins were forgiven. Conversion is the same as creation. 

Then He rises from the dead and He says in Matthew 28

“all authority has been given to me and I give it to you.”

The Great Commission. So then when Peter says to a crowd of people “repent and be baptized” guess what happened? They repented and were baptized and believed and were saved. 

And the same thing is true for you.

I called this sermon “Trinity, Water & Light” which sounds like a utilities power company. Trinity, Water, Light & Power. I think that’s right, because that’s what I’m talking about, power.

What do you think happens when you tell people the promises of the Gospel? You’ve been given the same authority to go around saying, “Repent. Believe. Follow Jesus. Your sins are forgiven.”

When you speak the words of Christ, they have the same authority as if He said them Himself. When we speak these words, He makes it happen:

Repent. Believe. Follow Jesus. Your sins are forgiven. Let there be light!

You will be flooded with the light of Christ. You will be re-created. You will no longer be formless and void. You will be good.

So, be thankful. Live in the freedom that He gives you. Live in the hope He gives you. No matter what happens, remember this: you are so important to God that He created you. He saved you. He re-created you at great cost to Himself. This ought to brighten any dark patches you might be going through. Let there be light! It’s more than enough for any darkness that tries to envelope you. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN