My sermon notes from "I Believe in the Trinity"

I want to share with you the manuscript that I took with me into the pulpit this last Sunday. I wondering if you would find the publication of these sermon notes beneficial? Here they are:

“I Believe in the Trinity”
John 3:1-15 – 9/28/2008

(This morning a new series. Explain the sermon series guidebook. 3 things each week. Keep this guidebook in your Bible. Bring it every Sunday and also take it with you to small group.)

Begin new series today. The vision and mission of TPC - "Credo – I believe"
We begin with the Trinity.

Trinity is a very common name for a Christian church or school. Trinity Pres/Baptist/Methodist/Episcopal/Catholic Church, Trinity College in Cambridge and Trinity College in Dublin Trinity University in Chicago, Trinity Christian Academy, even Trinity Industries.

Along with Covenant, Trinity is the most common name for a Presbyterian Church.

What interesting is that we have all these school and churches named Trinity, yet today we rarely talk about the Trinity. Why is that? I think it is because years ago our forefathers understood the significance of the doctrine of the Trinity in a way that we do not today

Trinity is not only our name, it is our starting point and our destination.

We begin with the Trinity, because God is our starting point.

There’s a lot of great things that happen at our church: music, children, women’s, men’s, small groups, outreach, mercy, etc.

But none of those things are why we exist.

We exist for God. God is the great subject of our church and He is the object of our lives. We begin with the Triune God because we strive to be God-centered in all our living.

Romans 11:36 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

You see, Trinity is not only the word we hang on our front yard sign, it is, in the words of theologian Charles Lowry, “the most comprehensive and the most nearly all-inclusive formulation of the truth of Christianity”.

The Trinity is a greatly underappreciated truth. We see it as something abstract. Something so mysterious that it does us practically no good.

But is the Trinity really all that impractical?

Go back with me to Jesus’ last night on earth.
He is praying to the Father. He has begun to sweat blood.
The suffering of the cross is now biting at his heels as his betrayal is underway.

And he is in prayer. Deep, soul prayer. And in those prayers – called the High Priestly Prayer – what thought is filling his mind?

What thought does he return to over and over again both to comfort our Lord and to give our Lord courage to finish his mission?

It is nothing less than the thought of the Trinity.

The Father delighting in the Son. The Son obeying the Father. The Holy Spirit ministering the love of the Father to the Son.

In Jesus greatest hour of need, the remedy for his soul was the awesome truth of the Trinity.

So don’t tell me that the Trinity is an impractical doctrine!

Jesus shows us otherwise. It is the most practical of all doctrines.

Because it is the truth about who our God is.

And nothing – nothing – is more practical to our lives than a robust, accurate, living knowledge of God.

The Trinity is that biblical teaching that there is only one God, but that He eternally exists in three person, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

These are three distinct persons.

Some have that God is like an actor who plays different roles in the same movie (like Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove). Sometimes he appears to us as the Father. Sometimes he appears to us as the Son, and other times as the Holy Spirit. One God who may appear to us in three different ways. But this is actually an ancient heresy called Sabellianism. God is doesn’t just appear in three different ways, he is actually three persons.

Each of these persons is fully God. Yet they are of the same essence and they are one in substance.

There are a lot of passages I could have gone to today to teach about the subject of the Trinity.

I could have gone to the High Priestly prayer in John 17, which I just mentioned a moment ago. The Trinity is there.

I could have gone to the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan river where the Father sends His Spirit upon the Son and says, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” The Trinity is there. I baptized my daughter this morning in the three-fold name. It’s there in the Great Commission.

I could have gone to the letters of Paul where he repeated speaks of each member of the Godhead working in concert to bless us with benefits of Christ.

I could have gone to the letters of Peter, who says in the very first very of his first letter that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit.

But many years ago – in fact in the year 1662 – as the English were putting together their prayer book, they set aside one Sunday a year on the Christian Calendar to be Trinity Sunday. Every year, seven weeks after Ascension Sunday, every church would pause and celebrate the Trinity. And in that old book of common prayer, they assigned their preachers a text, John 3, Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.

Have you ever thought about this passage as a revelation of what faith in the Trinity is all about? Perhaps not.

In fact, I may have read this passage this morning and as I was doing so, you may have been asking yourself, “this is a great text, pastor, but what in the world does this have to do with the Trinity”?

Oh, it’s there.
But it’s not there as some abstract doctrine.

It’s not there as some litmus test for sound, orthodox Christian doctrine, though the Trinity certainly is that.

In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus we discover that faith in the Trinity is really just the sinner’s way of salvation.

We find that teaching on the Trinity and teaching about our salvation are interwoven so tightly that it is difficult to even pull the fibers apart.

Once when I was in seminary, four of us drove to Maine for a little vacation. We went to Acadia National Park and did some hiking. One morning we started off on a random trail and begin climbing higher and higher. Two hours later we emerged at the top of small mountain overlooking the ocean. It was beautiful and well worth the hike. When we were at the top, we asked someone what this hill was called. “The Beehive,” came the answer, because from a distance it looks just like a beehive. The point is that it wasn’t until I got to the top of the mountain that I even knew what mountain it was that I had climbed.

John 3 is like that.
It isn’t until we come to the end of Jesus’ teaching about the way of salvation – until we have climbed the mountain – that we discover that all along we’ve been talking about the Trinity, whether we realized it or not.


Look at it with me now.

Nicodemus was a senior Jewish ruler and theologian. He was as prominent as any cardinal or archbishop or mega-church pastor today. Nicodemus has come to meet Jesus, who is this novice preacher from the Galilean back-woods, who is in Jerusalem, it seems, for the first time since his ministry started. Nicodemus, being older (and he does seem to refer to himself as an old man in verse 4) speaks first. His opening words are kind and gracious. “Rabbi”, he says, “Teacher”. He gives this young country preacher a little respect from up front. Teacher, he says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” It’s as if Nicodemus is saying,

“I am sure, Jesus, that you are wondering whether or not we in the religious establishment here in Jerusalem accept you and approve of what you are doing and whether or not we regard you as one of us. Well, now, Teacher, I’m here to assure you that we do, and we will be happy to have you as a regular member of our discussion circle – the Jerusalem Theological Society, you might call it. So come Jesus and join us!”

Now do you see what was underneath all of that politeness?

By treating Jesus as if he were a recruit for the Jewish establishment, he was patronizing the Son of God!

But Jesus did not accept patronage from Nicodemus or anyone else while he was here on earth, just as he will not accept your patronage or mine now that he reigns in heaven. It is for us to bow down before Jesus, not for Jesus to bow down before us, no matter how politely we may ask.

So notice that Jesus does not respond by thanking Nicodemus for his kind words. No, Jesus strikes a different note.

He tells his visitor the plain truth – that “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus is bewildered.

Jesus goes on to explain in verse 5:
Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

And then from this point we’re off into the main idea of our passage.

Now, as we work our way through the rest of this passage, I want you to notice that John’s camera has something in the foreground and something in the background.

The first major thing I want you to see is what is in the foreground.
The second major thing I want you to see is what is in the background.

Let’s start with what’s in the foreground of the story.

In the foreground of camera’s focus there are three stages to this story. Perhaps you can call them three acts to this play.

Stage one is found in vv. 3-10
Stage two is found in vv. 11-13
Stage three is found in vv. 14-15

In the first stage (vv.3-10), Jesus asks, “Do you want to see and enter the Kingdom of God?”
In the second stage (vv.11-13), Jesus asks, “Do you want to be born again?”
In the third stage (vv.14-15), Jesus asks, “Are you willing to trust in me and learn from me for your salvation?”

1. So let’s take up the question of the first stage: “Do you want to see and enter the Kingdom of God?”

What is the Kingdom of God?

The whole New Testament makes clear that it is not a territorial reign – unless of course you think of the human heart as a territory.

No, the Kingdom of God exists is any life where God is made King and Jesus the Savior is acknowledged as Lord.

The relationship brings salvation from sin and Satan and spiritual death.

Jesus bestows forgiveness of sins, adoption into God’s family, and the joy of eternal life on all who entrust their destiny to him and give him the love and loyalty of their hearts.

The path to this new relationship is – as Jesus explained to Nicodemus – called the new birth.

What is the new birth?

What does it mean to be “born of water and the Spirit?”

Water and Spirit are two aspects of the same reality – and that reality is God’s renewal of the fallen and unresponsive human heart.

Spirit and water are two words describing the same inner work of God in the life of the soul.

I believe that Jesus here is alluding to Ezekiel 36:25-27, where God says “I will sprinkle water on you… I will put my Spirit in you.”

It’s two different ways of saying the same basic thing.

The point is that in order to come into a renewed, restored relationship with a holy God, you must first have an inward cleansing and a change of heart that only God can accomplish in you. You must be born anew. There must be a new creation that happens inside of you. You must start life all over again, but this time in a completely new way.

So in stage one: Jesus asks, ‘Do you want to see and enter the Kingdom of God? Then you must be born again.’

2. Now in the second stage, (vv.11-13), Jesus asks, “Do you want to be born again?”

And in order to be born again, you must be willing to listen to and accept the teaching of Jesus. You must be willing to receive the Word of God.

There’s an old saying: “You can always tell a Harvard man, but you can’t tell him much.” Lots of people are that way. You can’t tell them anything because they are not teachable. Nicodemus at first wasn’t teachable. He challenged Jesus. He told Jesus that it didn’t make any sense to him.

Jesus replies to him and says,
“11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.”

If you are to be born again, you must begin by listening to and receive the testimony of Jesus.

You see, there are some questions that cannot be answered by Google, but must be answered by God.

3. Now in the third and final stage (vv.14-15), Jesus asks, “Are you willing to trust in me and learn from me for your salvation?”

Jesus says he is the one we look to in order to receive God’s free gift of salvation.

And he teaches us this by once more quoting from the OT. Numbers 21:6-9 is the story of how poisonous snakes infested the camp of the Israelites and God instructed Moses to make an image of a brass snake and lift him up high on a pole.

All who looked to the snake – the symbol of their suffering – would be healed.

Jesus says that he is the fulfillment of that brass snake.

He takes on the sin of the world
and on the cross in which we will be lifted up,
he will be the symbol of the curse of sin –

so that all who look to him and trust in him will be saved from the poinsonous affects of sin.

The final message to Nicodemus is: Don’t patronize Jesus.

Believe in Jesus. Trust in him, rely on him, tell him that he is your only hope, embrace him as your Savior and Lord – and yours sins will be forgiveness, your sickness of spirit healed, and your uncleanness shall be washed away. You will be born again and you will see & enter the Kingdom of God.

This is the message of our text. And it is God’s Word for everyone today sitting here in this room. I encourage you to respond personally and quickly to this teaching from Jesus.


These are the three stages telling us about what it means to be born again. This is what is in the foreground of camera’s focus. This is the first major thing I want you to see this morning. But now let’s look at what’s in the background.

The second major thing I want you to see is that there are three persons at work in this text.

The story of the new birth is in the foreground. But these three persons are in the background, working together so that the new birth is even possible.

All three persons of the Trinity are present right here in verse 5.

1. “Truly, truly I say to you” – who is this “I”? It is Jesus, who is John 1:14 has already been called “God’s one and only Son”. In the famous verse 16 of our chapter, Jesus is called “God’s only Son”. So the eternal, coexistent Son of God is here in verse 5.

2. And notice whose Kingdom it is that we must enter? It is the Kingdom of God – the one whom Jesus calls Father. The one whom Jesus taught his disciples to call our Father in Heaven. Here is God the Father, whose Kingdom Jesus is now announcing.

3. And notice that in order to enter this Kingdom, you must be born of the Spirit. And here is the third person of the Trinity. Here is Holy Spirit, in whose new creation power we must start life all over again – what Jesus calls, the new birth.

There they are: the Father (whose Kingdom it is), the Son (whom the Father has sent to save) and the Spirit (whose power of new creation must be experience in our hearts). One God, eternally existing in three persons.

This is the first of a number of places in John’s Gospel where all three are spoken of together.

What I want you to notice is that the entire conversation with Nicodemus presents us with profound teaching about the Trinity by setting before us the person and work of both God’s Son and God’s Spirit.

Here we learn that Jesus is the God-sent, divine-human sin-bearer, who by his cross and resurrection secured for us eternal life.

Here we learn that the Spirit is the divine regenerator who by transforming our inner disposition, and in that sense by changing our nature, enables us to experience the life of the Kingdom of God. Without the Son and Spirit there can be no salvation for anyone.

What this all comes down to is this: the truths of the Holy Trinity and the truths of saving grace are not two different truths, but actually just one truth.

They are inseparable.

The truth of the Trinity is the poor sinner’s path of salvation.

The doctrine of the gospel (good news) is that the Father has given us His eternal Son to redeem us, that the Son has given himself on the cross to save us and that the personal, eternal Holy Spirit has come to our hearts to give us new birth so that we can enter in to this salvation.

The truth of the Trinity is the sinner’s path of salvation.

The doctrine of the Trinity is the good news of three divine persons working together to raise us up into spiritual life and bring us to the glory of God’s Kingdom.

The Vision and Mission of Trinity Presbyterian Church begins and ends with the reality of our Triune God. That is why we are Trinity Presbyterian Church.

Oh, there’s so much more to say that I can’t get to today.

I wanted to say how the Trinity solves the ancient philosophical problem of the One and the Many. God is both One and Many. There is both unity and diversity in the universe because God is one and three.

I wanted to talk about how joyful, loving relationship doesn’t begin in Genesis 1 when God created man and entered into a relationship with him. No, joyful, loving relationship has been on-going from eternity past with the Godhead, as the Father, Son and Spirit share a holy love for one another. Relationships are made possible by the Trinity

I wanted to talk about how heaven will be an entrance into that same eternal joy and love that exists between the persons of the Trinity, and how heaven will be nothing but an eternally increasing experience of infinite joy and infinite love.

I wanted to unpack for you a famous statement by Cornelius Van Til, when he said, “Every truth is nothing but an externalization of the personality of the Trinity.” Every truth is ultimately related an expression of the personality of our Triune God.

So Charles Lowry was right: the doctrine of the Trinity is “the most comprehensive and the most nearly all-inclusive formulation of the truth of Christianity”. J. I. Packer was right, “Trinity is the Christian word for describing the Christian God.”

But all of that is too glorious and too much for us to approach right now.

So let me end with a prayer. This is an old prayer and it is printed in a marvelous book called “Valley of Vision”. If you don’t have a copy of Valley of Vision, by all means go and get one. I want to end on a note of worship and praise and adoration, because this is where the doctrine of the Trinity invariably leads us.

[read “The Trinity” from Valley of Vision]