This week we celebrate the wonder of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is a lot easier to preach on a story from the Bible than it is a doctrine like the Trinity. So how am I going to keep your attention so that you don’t begin to focus on the back of your eyelids or start running down your grocery list in your mind? Part of it will be up to you. But for my part I want to emphasize that the doctrine of the Trinity is of the utmost importance to you. It is the story of your salvation. Salvation is the work of the Trinity – decreed by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and made known by the Spirit. Your gift of heaven is from the Holy Trinity.

In our sermon lesson, Jesus was talking to his disciples. Soon he would leave them and he wanted to comfort them. He promised that even if they didn’t understand now why he had to suffer and die, later they would receive the Holy Spirit who would make it all clear. The disciples were one side of Pentecost waiting for the Spirit to come. On that great day the Spirit came upon them and they told the story of salvation – the story of the Trinity. We are on the other side of Pentecost and Spirit has come to us in the pages of Holy Scripture. The Holy Spirit makes salvation clear to us so that we also can share the work of the Trinity with others.

1. Decreed by the Father

In this portion of John’s gospel of, Jesus refers to the Father. He said, “All that belongs to the Father is mine.” Here we see that the Trinity is one. We have one God and yet there are three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This can be hard to understand. Augustine, a theologian of the 4th century struggled for many years to teach the Trinity. One day, as he walked along the Mediterranean Sea, he wrestled with it in his mind. As he walked, he ran across a young boy who was playing in the sand. The boy had dug a hole in the beach and was walking back and forth from the sea dumping water into the hole. The sand soon soaked up the water. The boy would take his pail and do it all over again. Augustine asked the boy, “What is it you are trying to do?” The boy replied, “I am trying to put the sea into this hole.” Augustine realized that he was trying to do the same thing. He was trying to cram the vast sea of God’s truth in his little mind. God is too big to fit into minds. How can the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all be God and yet there is one God and not three Gods?

People have tried to explain the Trinity with three-leaf clovers, an egg, an apple, water, and other ways. But all these illustrations fall short. We believe in the Trinity not because we can understand it, but because the Bible tells us about the Trinity. It is a matter faith. And faith in the Trinity gives us salvation.

Salvation was decreed by the Father. Remember Jesus said, “All that belongs to the Father is mine.” The Father takes credit for what Jesus won for us. He decreed it. It wasn’t his first decree. He decreed that there be a heaven and earth. He decreed that there be light. He decreed that there be a sun, moon, and stars, animals, vegetation and man. He also decreed that Adam and Eve must not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

However Adam and Eve dismissed that decree and believed the lies of the devil. Because of their actions sin entered the world. Along with sin came suffering, death, and eternal punishment. Sin and the results of sin were passed down from generation to generation and you were born a sinner. I was born a sinner. The sin that we inherited from Adam and Eve and the sins that we commit every day demand punishment – the punishment of hell.

Thankfully, our Heavenly Father promised that someone would come to suffer that punishment for mankind. God said to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, “He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” That was the Father’s first decree of salvation. He would a send a Savior to take away our sins and free us from the punishment of hell. The story of salvation is based on the Father’s loving decree to send a Savior. He would suffer for our transgressions. He would make payment for our sins.

2. Accomplished by the Son

The Savior was promised repeatedly in the Old Testament. Remember the prophecy of Isaiah. “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” In the New Testament that promise was revealed. John’s gospel tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Not only did God the Father send someone to accomplish our salvation for us, but he sent his one and only Son. That is so amazing! If you are a parent, would you give up your child to save others? God did it and his Son became our salvation. He remained sinless to fulfill the Father’s demands. He was the perfect sacrifice for us. He accomplished our salvation by obediently giving his life as ransom for our transgressions. Our punishment was on him and he died on the cross to win our forgiveness. In victory the Son of God rose from the dead on Easter Sunday and crushed the devil’s head just as God had promised Adam and Eve.

Yes, the Son of God accomplished our salvation by giving himself for you. He lived for you. He died for you. He rose for you. You sins are forgiven. Eternal life is yours. Believe in him and be saved.

3. Made known by the Spirit

It is faith in the Son of God that brings salvation to us and it is made known to us by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit delivers faith to our hearts. That was Jesus’ promise to his disciples here. He told them that the Spirit would guide them in all truth but he would not speak on his own. That means that the Holy Spirit is unified with the Son and glorifies the Son. All three persons of the Trinity work together for our salvation, not separately. They have one mission.

It is vitally important that we see that the work of the Holy Spirit is never separate from Jesus or the Word of God. There is a strange movement in Christianity today which bases everything on impulses. God gave me an impulse to do this or to do that. Usually these impulses produce the strangest results. Remember that any impulse that does not glorify the Son of God is a trap of the devil. Jesus gave us the easiest test for these kinds of impulses. The Holy Spirit “will guide you into all truth,” and Jesus said, “I am the truth.” Beware of any religious impulse that would glorify yourself. Martin Luther called people who buy into these impulses swarmers. He said, “[They] were aimlessly flying around in the cloudland of their own dreams and refused to base their faith on the Bible.”

The work of the Holy Spirit is marked by the message of Jesus’ sacrificial death, not our good works. The message of the Bible is rooted in the blood of the Lamb, not phony miracles or strange tongues. The salvation brought to us by the Spirit is not dependant on our deep devotion or arduous prayers. As the Holy Spirit gives glory to the Son may we also give glory to Jesus by being firmly rooted in the pages of Holy Scripture, the tool of the Spirit that brings us faith.

Conclusion:

Faith saves. And Jesus said that we should all have childlike faith. But let us never have childish faith. Let us never be satisfied with what we know. Today we recognize those who are graduating from our Lutheran elementary school, from high school, and from college this year. I suspect that most graduates see their graduation as an ending. But graduation is more of a beginning than an end. Learning and growing is something that needs to happen as long as we live. We are invited by God to continue to grow and to learn. And God gives us the Holy Spirit to be our guide.

Trinity Sunday is not an academic puzzle designed to make our brains hurt. It is an invitation to think more deeply about our God and to grow in understanding, in faith, and in love for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.