Pastor Slaughter
June 4, 2023
Holy Trinity
Holy Trinity Sunday
Theme: The Triune God is for you and is with you!
Text: 2 Corinthians 13:11-14
Today is Trinity Sunday. One of the great festivals of the church year. Today we celebrate a doctrine, a teaching from God’s Word. If I were to ask you, “What does it mean for you that God is Triune?” what would you say? Would you say that you worship the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit? Would you say something you learned in Catechism class, “Three distinct persons and yet one God”? Would you say something like how the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father, yet the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God?
But what does it mean for you? Why is this teaching of God’s word so important that we have a special festival for it? One, it is necessary for salvation, so it is vitally important for us to understand it. But this doctrine and teaching isn’t some nebulous thing where God is so far removed from you. But this doctrine of the Trinity shows us that he is not a God that is far removed from us but quite the opposite. As we explore the Trinity today, we see how the Triune God meets us. We will see that the Triune God is for you and he is with you!
Paul ends his second letter to the Corinthians by pointing them to the Triune God. In verse 14 he says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Grace, love, and fellowship. What kind of God do we have? The Triune God comes to you in Grace, and love, and brings you into fellowship with him.
The Apostle Paul’s last words in his letter focus on who God is. The grace of our Lord Jesus. Grace is God’s undeserved love for us. That Jesus would take on flesh. That Jesus would take our punishment. That Jesus would suffer for people who didn’t deserve it. Our God is for us and was willing to take our place. He did this not because of anything we did or will do. Our sins are repulsive to God. And yet by his grace he took care of our sin by way of the cross. He has secured for us forgiveness. Our God did for us what we are not able to do, to pay for our sin. The Triune God is for you!
The Love of God. The Greek word agape love. That love that starts in God and is for us. That unconditional love for you and me. You see that love in God’s plan of salvation and how he carried it out for you. That John 3:16 kind of love, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son…” Just turn through the pages of scripture and see how God’s love in the fact that he kept his promise brought about your salvation! The Triune God is for you!
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit. God the Father’s love is seen in his plan of salvation by sending his Son, God the Son’s grace is seen in giving us what we do not deserve. But the love of the Father and the grace of the Son would be in vain if the holy Spirit hadn’t brought us into fellowship with him by giving to us saving faith. Working through the gospel in Word and sacrament.
I can’t get over this teaching of God’s Word. The Trinity comes and meets us with his grace, his love, and brings us into fellowship with him. He does it all! And he does it for you. You are loved, so much so that he adopted you and placed his name on you at your baptisms. If you ever doubt that look at Jesus’ sacrifice and see his grace for you. If you feel alone, remember the Holy Spirit, who brought you into fellowship with God.
The Triune God did it all for you so that he could be to be with you! Loneliness has been described as epidemic. One static says that 60 Percent of people in the U.S right now report feeling lonely on a pretty regular basis. In a world that seems to have gotten smaller with technology, in a world where everyone seems to be connected through social media, phones, etc still reports of 60 percent of people in the US feel lonely on a regular basis.
Have you or are you struggling with this? I know I have, and I know I do at times. We could get into all kinds of different reason people may feel that way and it is probably different for each one but for me (and I wonder if it is true for others) it seems to be something external, like what someone said or did, or maybe someone leaving, and then I react a certain way, anger sorrow and it leads to this feeling of being alone, thinking no one understands or cares or loves me. The emotions I have lead me to forget or keeps me from seeing something. The Triune God who did it all for me to be with me.
When faced with times of loneliness remember the words Paul wrote in our lesson, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The Triune God has brought us into fellowship with him. The lengths he went to be with us for all eternity just simply amazes me.
As the Triune God has brought us into fellowship with him, he has brought us into fellowship with other believers. The world speaks of loneliness as an epidemic, Christianity has cure. The Fathers unconditional love in sending his Son, the Son’s grace seen in the sacrifice. The Holy Spirit in bringing us into fellowship with him. The promise that not only God is with us but we are to take gospel message into the world making disciples by teaching and by baptizing them in the name of the triune God. Guess what happens? Our fellowship with one another grows as well.
So, we not only have fellowship with God, but we have fellowship with one another connected to the Triune God. Paul reminds us of that when he tells the Corinthians “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.”
We even proclaim this truth in our mission statement. Can you recite what our mission statement is? “We are a family united and saved by faith in Christ, dedicated to praising God and sharing His love and Word with all people.” This is who we are. The apostle Paul encourages this in our lesson, “Finally, bothers, rejoice. Set things in order. Be encouraged. Agree with one another. Be at peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.” We are to be united… to be at peace with one another. Why? Because the Triune God did it all for us in order to be with us BUT not only with us as individuals but as a family of believers.
I think the Paul wanted to end his letter reminding the Corinthians of fellowship that they have with the Triune God and with one another because Satan was hard at work among the Corinthians Christians. In Paul’s first letter he addressed factions that divided the congregation. People were focused on themselves and their wants and needs, sin wasn’t being addressed. So Paul in his second letter wants to remind them of the fellowship they have with God and the fellowship they are to have with one another.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, do you think that Satan is hard at work trying to break the fellowship we have with the Triune God and with one another and hinder our mission work of sharing the gospel to bring others into fellowship with us? Differences of opinion that leads to divisions because the church went a different direction then what we wanted? Giving each other the cold shoulder. Holding grudges. Focusing on what I want instead of others. Isolating ourselves from opportunities to gather together for fellowship with believers. Where convince of home becomes more important than the fellowship, we have by gathering with believers at church. For our sins we need to repent.
The Triune God of love and peace is with us. He has given us peace with him by his love and grace and brought us into fellowship with him. He wants us too have that same love and peace with others whom he has brought us into fellowship with him. So how do we do that? We remember of all see what our Triune God has done for us. We remember the grace our Lord Jesus Christ, we remember the love of Good the Father, and we remember the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We remember that he did this for us to be with us. We also need to remember that he is the Triune God of grace, love and fellowship and he also did it for other members of the family of God. When we look at each other the way God looks at us, with grace and love, it leads us to live at peace with one another.
My family by means of fellowship of the Holy Spirit. What does the Trinity mean for you? It means that we have a God of Grace and unconditional love, who has brought us into fellowship with him so that he could be with us. As Paul said, “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.