June 11, 2017
Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity.
INI + AMEN.
The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. We don’t have three Gods but one God. The Father is merciful. The Son is merciful. The Spirit is merciful. We don’t have three Merciful’s but one Merciful. The Father is forgiving. The Son is forgiving. The Spirit is forgiving. We have not three Forgivings, but one Forgiving.
One God, three persons. One God who saves. One God who redeems His people. One God who shows mercy.
The Father sends the Son, not to condemn or judge the world but to save it. The Son obeys His Father’s will and dies for the sin of the world. The Spirit delivers the Father’s love for us in the death of His Son to you in the waters of Holy Baptism. “Whoever is born of water and the Spirit shall enter the kingdom of God.”
The Holy Trinity isn’t just some abstract fact you have to get right to be saved. Know what “person,” “unity of substance,” and “Trinity” mean and you’re good to go. No, God is Triune means that the Father loves you, the Son dies for you, and the Spirit delivers it to you. You don’t have three Gods who save you, but one God.
God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s Calvary set on saving you. That’s how He loves you. Christ dies for you because you need Him to. You sin. You turn from God. You go your own way. You do your thing. You think God is cool with it. He must be, you are you. His law—you ignore. His word—it gathers dust. His forgiveness—you despise. His grace—you turn to permission, or worse, expect it to be there allowing us to do whatever we want to do.
Then, you do the thing that God refuses to do: you judge others. You look down on them as if you don’t do the very things they do. You condemn them. Pushing yourselves up while you push them down.
And when things go poorly, you look to the heavens and tell Him, “Why aren’t thinks working out for me? Why did this happen? I’m doing my part. Why doesn’t this happen? I’ve even prayed for it!”
We’re no different from the children of Israel who were brought out of Egypt by pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They grumbled against God. They rejected His salvation (wanting to go back to Egypt), they rejected His Word (trusting so many other things besides Him), and they even rejected and didn’t want His Mana. The Lord sent serpents into the camp. They bit the children of Israel. They suffered. They died.
And this isn’t the God of the Old Testament who was just in a bad mood. Or that God wants to condemn, judge, and kill his people. No, we deserve it! We deserve judgment, punishment, and death. We’ve earned an eternity separated from God. And the truth is, we know the serpent all to well. Probably better than we know God. We know his bite. We know his sting.
But the Father, even in the Old Testament, loves you this way:
He commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. That who ever looked on the bronze serpent would be saved.
Christ. Whoever believes in Him, lifted up on the tree, is saved. That’s the Father’s love for you—Calvary. He sends His Son to be lifted up on the Cross. And you hear about it… it comes to you… “in the water and the Spirit” of Holy Baptism. Faith grasps hold of the promise of the Gospel in the water and you are saved.
It’s One God in three persons who saves you from your sins. A Father who loves you. A Son who died for you. A Spirit who makes the Father’s love and the Son’s death yours.
Repent of your sins. Turn from the ways of the serpent and living your own way before God. God isn’t the way you think He is. He’s far more scary…and far more forgiving. Your way ends in death, His way in life. So learn from the Father about how God is and His love for you in the Cross. Learn from the Son who takes on God’s scary judgment and suffers and dies. Learn from the Spirit who takes the resurrection of Christ and raises you from the dead in the waters of Holy Baptism.
The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. We don’t have three Gods but one God. One God, three persons. One God who saves. One God who redeems His people. One God who shows mercy.
Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity.
INI + AMEN.
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