Week Of: February 14, 2010
Title: The Third Person of Trinity – Part 1
Series: Systematic Theology – Part 17
Scripture: 1 John 4:7-12
1. Since it is Valentine’s Day I thought we talk about love. How many of you are in love or have ever been in love? How do you know you are in love? Or that you’ve ever been in love? Are you cynic or a romantic when it comes to love?
2. I am going to read you some quotes about love—to help you decide. If you agree with any of these raise your hand.
3. -Love conquers all things except poverty and a toothache
(The Bible actually says that Love covers a multitude of sins)
-Love is insanity with a collaborator
-Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence
-Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your heart or
burn down you house, you can never tell
-Love is a word consisting of two vowels, two consonants, and two fools
-Love is what happens to men and women who don’t know each other
-Girls, if you looking for a guy who’s attractive, funny, smart, self-confident,
sensitive, sexy, affectionate, and romantic, go to the movies
-Guys and ladies, beware of puppy love; it can lead to a dog’s life
-When we fall in love…falling in love is awfully simple.
Falling out of love is simply awful
-Love is the only disease that makes you feel better
4. Now let me give you some quotes about love that are more profound than humorous.
-One loving heart sets another on fire
-Love, above all, is the gift of oneself
-Love is the greatest thing that God can give us; for He himself is love:
and love is the greatest thing we can give God
-All virtue is loving right, all sin is loving wrong
-Human beings must be known to be loved, but divine things must be loved to be known
-God has made you to love Him, and not understand Him
-And in our scripture this morning: Anyone who fails to love can never
have known God, because God is Love. (1 John 4:8)
5. I think that love is neat. In fact I would not want to live in a world without genuine sincere love. In our scripture this morning John says “God is love” and that gives me hope because without God being love I have no hope. I am lost, and I am a goner.
6. Because sooner or later I am going to have to admit that “without love I am nothing,” as the Apostle Paul says “I am at best a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” If I am the smartest, best looking man alive, with all the faith in the world, so much so I can move mountains but I have not love, I am nothing. If in the afterlife, I stand before God and He says that I gave all that I have to poor, but I have not love then “I gain nothing.”
7. But what is love? I know its sex!! That’s right, isn’t it? No! I know… it is a chemical reaction in the brain? No! Now, I am sure there are chemical differences in the brain of someone who is a caring loving person and someone who is not, but that doesn’t prove or disprove the existence of love. How about warm fuzzy feelings, sympathy, or pity are these love? No not really. They can express love, but they are not synonymous with love.
8. Well Preacher, what do you think it is? I think that love is life-giving energy that enables us to deeply care about someone or something other than ourselves which is expressed in what we say and do, as well as how we feel. I’ve heard people say that the “hatred of someone” or “anger” they have toward someone is the thing that they feed off of, and that keeps them alive. But hatred, resentment, anger are the very things that suck the very life out of you. Hatred is a cancer that grows inside some people that destroys them—eats them up inside. That’s the reason that if you hate someone you are only hurting yourself, and in many cases the other person doesn’t care. And if they do care its only because they know they have gotten to you. And you do know that people can get to you, don’t you?
9. But love is what makes you feel alive. It is chemotherapy for the soul. It is what makes you feel like you’ve got a reason to get up in the morning and it is what keeps you going throughout the day. Love gives you a reason for existing, and then makes your existence worth living.
10. However, how do you know that you love something? I don’t exactly know how to answer that. If you care about something or someone deeply enough, then one day you realize, if you’re lucky, that you love it or them. Let me illustrate it this way.
11. I am assuming all of you basketball players like to play basketball. But how many of you care enough about the sport to skip baseball, softball, track and football? How many of you care enough about the sport to practice all spring, summer, and fall long—never to play any other sport again? You care about it, but you don’t care that much.
12. So as you live and grow in your understanding of love, you learn what love means to you. You learn from people who love you, what love looks like and what it truly means to care about something or someone. The cross is a wonderful picture of how much God loves you. Less you think I am talking down to you, I am 56 years old and I am still trying to learn all that it means.
13. But love is not just a feeling! It is an action. It is awful easy to say we love someone and treat them badly. It is awful easy to say that we love someone and take an advantage of them. It is awful easy to say we love God, but disobey and ignore His commandments. It is awful easy to talk about, and yes even preach love, but it is never easy to put it into practice.
14. Loving God is about loving Him so much that we want to please him by obeying Him and treating one another in a loving a caring way.
15. But how do you love and obey something or someone you cannot see, touch, or hear from. How do you love a God like that? First off, you see evidence of Him in the lives of someone you respect or care about. Second, you allow yourself to hunger for that kind of relationship with God.
16. Third, you believe that if you reach out for this God or love like you see in someone else’s life, that He will meet you over halfway. Fourth, it starts as simply faith that God is real and that He loves you. Fifth, by faith you ask Him to become a part your life. And sixth, as you start living as the Bible tells you to, you will fall in love with God.
17. 1 Corinthians 13 (read)
Week Of: February 21, 2010
Title: The Third Person of the Trinity - continued
Series: Systematic Theology – Part 18
Scripture: 1 John 4:12-16; Romans 5:5
1. In Christian theology, God is the ultimate source of everything; well everything except sin and evil and that is a mystery that we won’t get into this morning.
2. In Christian theology, God the Father is even the source of the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from both the Father and the Son.
3. In classical Christian theology, the primary way we differentiate between God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is the way that they eternally come into existence— again the Son is begotten, the Holy Spirit proceeds. It sounds strange, but our orthodox Christian forefathers did not want to say that God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were created by the Father. Instead, Jesus was begotten by the Father and the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father because, in the church father mind, to be created would make them second class to the Father. The real heresy of Jehovah witness’s doctrine is that they make Jesus and the Holy Spirit into second class deities.
4. Ok! The Son is begotten of the Father, and Holy Spirit proceeds out of the Father, but isn’t there another way of telling them apart? Well, most people would say that God the Father was the man upstairs. To which I would say God is not a man, and He is not necessarily upstairs. To Jesus they might say “he was a walking, talking, breathing person, just like us in the flesh.” In a sense that was true once but now He is seen as our Risen and Ascended Savior having shed His earthy flesh—He has a resurrected body. As far as the Holy Spirit is concerned, most people would see Him as a ghost that goes around making people shout, jump, and do really weird things against their will.
5. ***It is possible to tell the Father apart from the Son by saying that only the Son (the Word) became flesh and dwelled among men. Our Christian forefathers in and out of the Bible wanted to say that the Son suffered and died but nobody wanted to say that God the Father suffered and died. So the function of the Son is to become fully human, remaining what He was (God), he suffered and died. Dying and suffering is not the function of the Father.
6. One of the greatest if not the greatest theologians outside of the Bible itself was a 5th century man by the name of Augustine. He came to think of the Holy Spirit as being the love of the Trinity. Keep in mind that God is love, and that all the attributes of the Trinity are shared between the Trinity (like love), but the Holy Spirit is the love of God. Augustine thought of the Holy Spirit as being the person of love that binds the Father and Son together in Love. The Holy Spirit becomes the part of the Trinity that binds the first and second person of the Trinity together in love. The Holy Spirit is the bond of love.
7. To what biblically do you base this understanding of the Holy Spirit? Well, let’s call the Apostle Paul to the witness stand? Apostle Paul! You are the Apostle Paul are you not? Yes I am. You are the person who wrote the 13 letters by your name that we have a part of our scriptures? Yes I am…some say I wrote Hebrews but that wasn’t me. Ok! But let’s not get side tracked on that issue. You are considered the foremost authority on our Lord Jesus Christ and our faith in general, outside our Lord Himself are you not? Well, I don’t want to boast but yes I am. And you know and understand the church’s teachings on the Holy Spirit… Yes I should know them under the leadership of the Spirit itself…I helped develop them.
8. Well as I’ve been trying to explain to these good people, what is the relationship between love and the Holy Spirit?
Well, keep in mind that no one, not even a person as smart I am and gifted as I am can fully describe or capture the essence of any part of the God-head or Trinity as you call it. But I do believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is Love. My friend John said it plainly as possible that “God is Love.” And since God is love, then all are love, but I do believe that the Holy Spirit has a special bonding power that I can only characterize as love.
9. I can speak in tongues with the best of folks and every time I have there has been an incredible sense of warmth and love about me. But as you know from my writings to the Corinthians, the presence of the Holy Spirit is not about that flamboyant and might add lesser gift of speaking in tongues, but it is about being bonded to God, and to one another in love.
10. If I might add, let me remind you of your scripture this morning that you chose. If I recall correctly, I was writing to my dear brothers and sisters at Rome and telling them not to be discouraged by the problems they were facing. Because of their faith in Jesus Christ many of them were unduly being persecuted, and consequently suffering badly. It had been reported to me that several were on the verge of giving up. I wrote to them saying: “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us” (Romans 5:2-5).
Thank you Apostle Paul, you may be seated.
11. God is love, and all the Holy Trinity in that sense is love. But the Holy Spirit is the personification of divine love that holds us all together.
12. What love in general? You make it sound like people who are not saved don’t love. No not really!!!! There is a term that might help. It comes from John Wesley – see handout on P. Grace.
Week Of: February 28, 2010
Title: The Holy Spirit and the Law
Series: Systematic Theology – Part 19
Scripture: Psalms 119:97-104; 127, 128
1. Do you love the law? How many lawyers do we have in church this morning? Folks, do you love the law? Practicing the Law? What makes you love the law? It helps people! It protects us and keeps peace! It helps punish those who are criminals. It defends those who are innocent.
2. I would think I am like most people. The law is something we don’t think about until we need it or violate it. Then we call on the lawyers to help us with it.
3. But what about religious law? Civil, state, and federal laws, the laws of men are one thing but what about the laws of God? Do we love the laws of God?
4. In our Psalms this morning, the psalmist is declaring his love for God’s law. In fact, the whole psalm is about the love that the psalmist has for the law. The word “law” can mean a lot of things in the Bible. Most people tend to think of the law as just being the 10 Commandments, but really it is more. For example, the Law of Moses is the 10 Commandments but also can mean the cultic law, the religious law that explains how to go about making sacrifices and pleasing God in worship. In addition, the first five books of the Bible are called the Pentateuch which also means Torah or Law.
5. The law in the New Testament is used in even more of a variety of ways: In 1 Corinthians 14:21, it can be used to mean any part of the Old Testament. In Matthew 11:13, it can refer to all or part of the Pentateuch that we’ve referred to before.
6. In Romans 8:7, the law and God’s will are synonymous. In Acts 22:3, the law is equated with Jewish tradition and practices.
7. But what is a law? You might say a law is a society’s specification of what obligations and practices it requires of its members as necessary to their life in community. God’s laws are obligations and practices that He requires of all human beings to live by in community with Him and with one another.
8. There are several things that are inherently difficult about all of this! One, not everyone recognizes the validity and authority of His law. And that shouldn’t be surprising because not everyone recognizes the laws of our state and our nation so it is not surprising that there are people who don’t recognize the laws of our God whom they cannot touch, see, or hear. Many people believe that they are a law onto themselves, not having to respect the wishes and concerns of no one other than themselves.
9. Two, while some people believe God’s laws exist, they do not believe His Law applies to them or they do believe it applies to them. They would like to pick and chose which laws apply to them. Sometimes Presidents and Congressmen think that they are so powerful that certain laws do not apply to them.
10. Three, while many people would agree that God’s laws exist and that all of God’s laws do apply to them, how many of us would say that obeying all of God’s laws are easy? I used to believe that most Christians understood and did pretty well with the 10 commandments. But I am not so sure anymore. For example, if you took them literally, most people would fair pretty good with some of the commandments and not so good with others. For example:
The sixth commandment says not to kill. Most would say they never killed anyone… yet Jesus said “if you are angry with anyone you are in danger of judgment” (Matthew 5:22).
The eighth commandment says not to steal.
The ninth commandment say not to lie—or bear false witness against thy neighbor.
The seventh commandment says not commit adultery. Again Jesus said “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).
The fifth commandment is “Honor thy Father and thy Mother.”
The tenth “Thou shall not covet.”
11. I guess you’ve noticed that the last 6 commandments have to do with our fellow human beings, and first four commandments have to do with God.
The first one is “Thou shall have no other gods before me.”
The second is “Thou shall not make any graven images.”
The third is “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord God thy God in vain” (not just cursing but anytime we don’t take God seriously).
Of course the 4th is “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy” which for most people is not existent.
12. According to Jesus, you could reduce all the laws of God to just two commandments – you would be “loving God with all of your heart, soul, and mind; and you would be loving your neighbor as yourself.
13. Now not too many people who have tried this would say that it is easy. For the folks who have given loving God a whirl, would say that sometimes it is hard just loving God a little, let alone loving Him with every fiber of your being. And for a lot of people, just not having hostile and ugly thoughts about their neighbor is hard enough let alone loving them as ourselves.
14. In fact, loving ourselves at times given what we do, think, feel, or fail to do, think, and feel is hard enough for some folks some of the time.
15. I think that Jesus saying the commandments are summed up in these two commandments makes it a lot simpler but doesn’t necessarily make it any easier. However, it does tell us the solution to the problem of the law.
16. The solution to the problem is love… and if the solution is love—then the Holy Spirit is our helper. In fact, the Apostle Paul is sure that we are no longer to be a people who live under the law, but according to him under the Spirit. In Romans 7:6 He says, “…we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” The new way of the Spirit is love. And according to him God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us (Romans 5:5).
Providence of God Study Sheet
Responsive reading: Holy Trinity
(Pastor) The Father is God
(Congregation) The Son is God
(Pastor) The Holy Spirit is God
(Congregation) The Father is not the Son
(Pastor) The Son is not the Holy Spirit
(Congregation) The Holy Spirit is not the Father
(Pastor and Congregation) There is one God and only one God.
Providence of God—God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that He (1) keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which He created them; (2) cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do; and (3) directs them to fulfill His purposes.
In other words in God’s providential care, God _________everything that He has created; ____________ and ________ with every to carry out their purpose for existence; and He directs and guides everything to fulfill His____________.
Revelation 22:13—Alpha and Omega
Alpha Omega
God’s perfect will would be for humanity to get from Alpha to Omega in straight line as quickly as possible so that His will might be fulfilled as quickly as possible.
What is His will? The Lord’s Prayer tells us: Our Father which are in Heaven hollow be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven…”
Alpha-----------------Omega (God’s perfect will be done.)
But human freedom causes God’s will to be delayed and at times maybe even frustrated but God is still in control.
Human freedom
Alpha Omega
Human freedom
Atonement simply tries to answer “what happened on the Cross and how it took place?”
Ransom theory of Atonement—The view that Jesus procured salvation by shedding his blood as a ransom to Satan to deliver humanity from bondage to evil. (Origen 185-254 A.D)