1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Today as we continue our sermon series on the
basics of the Christian faith as we confess it as Lutherans we’re looking at “The Trinity We Profess: The Father Who Gives,” dear brothers and
sisters in Christ.
2.
A
famous engineer spent years designing a new bridge. As time passed, he wondered if he would live
long enough to ever see the completed structure in place. The bridge was finally finished, but the
designer had to be carried to the site to see it. Staring at it in joy and satisfaction, he
exclaimed, “It’s just like the plan! It’s just like the plan!” God has a design for the world. He planned it from all eternity. But, we as human beings have frustrated the
master plan. In this message from God’s
Word this morning we will look at God’s original plan for His creation. We will look at our part in it. And we will think through the price our
heavenly Father had to pay in order to accomplish His goals after we human
beings ruined His original plan.
3.
Some
people think that the doctrine of the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
has been created by human beings. This
is the first question that we need to settle.
Is there a divine Creator and designer of the universe? The story is told of a pastor who visited a
new member of his congregation. He
invited her to bring her husband along with her to church. She responded, “Oh, he’s a scientist. He
doesn’t believe in God.” “That’s not
science,” replied the pastor. “That’s philosophy.” The Bible never tries to prove God’s
existence. It assumes it. The very first words of the Bible are, “In the beginning, God…” God is not a product of our own
imagination or of our wishful thinking.
Instead, He’s revealed Himself to us.
He’s told us about Himself in Holy Scripture.
4.
The
truth God has revealed to human beings isn’t just interesting, it’s critical
for our relationship with Him. One day a
student walked into a campus pastor’s study and said, “I’m an atheist.” The pastor
said, “Well, that’s very
interesting. Tell me what kind of a God
you don’t believe in.” And for an
hour she told him. When the hour ended,
the pastor said, “Well, that’s all very
interesting. But you know, I must be an
atheist, too. Because I don’t believe in
that God either.” And then the
pastor proceeded to tell her about the kind of God we have--God’s kind of God--a
God who does reveal Himself in Jesus Christ as He works through the means of
grace.
5.
This
revelation is critical for our relationship with God. Do you remember from the
first sermon in our series on the Basics of the Christian faith that I said
that God is transcendent? God is so
different from what we would imagine on our own, so much more wonderful than we
could ever imagine, that the pictures we make of Him and of our selves can’t
help but be hopelessly distorted. Take
the fact that God is Triune. Yes, yes, I know that the word Trinity doesn’t
appear in the Bible. But, the concept is
clearly there. “Trinity” simply means, “three in one.” God is one Being, but three Persons. We worship one God--Father, Son and Holy
Ghost. Who can grasp that? No human being or group of people could have
come up with that teaching on their own even if they had studied for
centuries. Our God is bigger than our
human minds. He’s beyond our limited
understanding. But, He has chosen us to
tell others about Himself. And He’s done
that because He wants a relationship with us.
6.
But,
some people might ask the question, “Has
science proven that the world came into being through evolution?” Those who choose to reject God’s
revelation of Himself face many unanswered and unanswerable questions. Like, how did the universe come to be? We’ve all heard various theories of
evolution, ideas about what brought everything that we see into existence. Most of these theories involve the idea of
evolution. The word “evolution” simply
means “change.” On the other hand,
“atheistic evolution” is a theory, it’s a “faith,” that says that there’s no
creator, that the world and all the human beings in it are simply products of
chance. I can say that atheistic
evolution is a “faith” because it’s not scientifically proven. True science deals with that which can be
observed, measured and verified. True
science experiments can be repeated and the results compared with prior results
so that the theories that the experiments are designed to prove can be tested.
7.
But,
no one can go back in time and observe the fossil record being laid down. We can theorize about the origin of
matter. We can theorize about the way
the various species of plants and animals have come to be. But, we can’t prove these things. We can’t copy the conditions that existed “in
the beginning,” and test our theories about what happened. Individual scientists who deny a Creator-God
are just showing their personal non faith.
Their comments go beyond the scope of science. Just as no scientist can prove atheistic
evolution, no Christian can prove the Christian faith. We simply believe it. We believe God created everything that exists
and that He made it from nothing, simply by speaking His Word. We believe this because He has revealed it to
us in the Scriptures.
8.
There
are some people who think that God the Father takes more things away from us
than what He gives to us. The Bible
attributes the work of creation to the person of the Trinity we know as God the
Father. The Bible reveals Him as kind,
wise, and good. He’s tender toward us,
wanting the best for us. Even though the
title, “Father” can become a barrier
for those who have had harsh or neglectful human fathers, it communicates a
very important truth about God and His master plan: God’s
plan from the beginning was to create a family.
9.
God
began by designing a beautiful home for us--the universe. And yet, the Apostle Paul says in Romans that
the whole creation is now “subject to bondage” because of human sin. In a way we can’t fully grasp, sin damaged
the beautiful home the Heavenly Father planned for us. And yet, our universe is a beautiful,
wondrous place even now. The Word that
the heavenly Father spoke at creation holds the universe together even
today. Martin Luther writes in the Small
Catechism that, “I believe that God has
made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears,
and all my members, my reason, and all my senses, and still takes care of
them. He also gives me clothing and
shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and
all I have. He richly and daily provides
me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards
and protects me from all evil.”
10.
Do
you suppose this is the kind of God that the student from the story I told you
about earlier wanted to believe in? I
don’t think so. Our Heavenly Father
gives good gifts to His children. But
because of our sinful hearts, we often find ourselves regarding Him with
suspicion. We sometimes wonder if He’s
holding out on us. We grumble and
complain and think we deserve more than we have. We worry about what we will eat or wear or
about how we’ll pay this month’s bills.
And all the while our Heavenly Father invites us to bring our needs to
Him so He can help us. It’s part of His
master plan for His family--to care for us.
If God hadn’t revealed this kind of love to us in the Scriptures we
would never have guessed it on our own.
Our sin blinds us to His goodness.
11.
But,
since the Bible calls God “Father” aren’t all human beings his children? Well, this was God’s intention. Maybe you’ve heard it said that God created
Adam and Eve in His image. The term
“image of God” means a joyful knowledge of God and communion with Him, a state
of perfection and peace. But, the image
of God was lost in man’s fall into sin.
From our very conception we’re dead in sin and in need of God’s
forgiveness, grace, and the new life that only He can give. And God does give it in Holy baptism, “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the
Holy Spirit,” as St. Paul puts it in Titus 3:5. The Holy Spirit began the process of
restoring the “image of God” in your heart and in mine. We’ve been adopted into God’s family. We’re His forgiven children. This image won’t be perfectly restored within
us until we reach our heavenly home. But
how confident we can be, knowing that God is at work within us even now to
bring it about. This adoption we have
received through Holy Baptism makes us God’s children. It means we can call God, “Father” in a sense
that only Christians can. The heavenly
Father does want to bring all people into His family. But, the New Testament makes it clear that
only those who are part of God’s family by faith in the saving work of Christ
can rightly call themselves the “children of God.”
12.
What
about angels? Are angels and devils
outdated, are they even real? What are
angels and demons and how do they fit into God’s master plan? The Scriptures describe God’s angels as
powerful and many. They worship
God. They act as His messengers. They surround us and protect us from evil. In fact, the angels watch over us
personally. You’ve heard the term
“guardian angel.” The Bible doesn’t use
this term, but the concept is there. In
Matthew 18:10, Jesus says, “See that you
don’t look down on one of these little ones.
For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my
Father in heaven.” Who are these
“little ones”? Children. Those new to the Christian faith. And, anyone who sees himself as insignificant
in God’s kingdom. Do you fit into these
categories? Yes. All of us who have by the Holy Spirit’s power
come to Jesus in faith can consider ourselves one of “God’s little ones.”
13.
And
what does Jesus hint at here about the holy angels in the phrase, “their
angels”? He means that God assigns
individual angels to individual believers.
Maybe even more than one angel to each of us. What do these angels do? They watch over us and protect us. And we need their protection because the holy
angels aren’t the only angels. Countless
demons constantly seek to tempt us, trap us in sin and pull us away from
God. The French skeptic Voltaire has
said, “If there were no devil, it would
be necessary to invent one.” How
else can we explain all the evil in this world?
The Bible abounds with references to Satan, a real being, who seeks to
lead us and all people into eternal death, a very real hell.
14. How thankful
then can we be that the Holy Spirit has revealed to us the love that our
Heavenly Father has for us. How thankful
we can be that He has placed His mark of ownership on us in our baptism and
that He calls us His very own children, His heirs with Jesus Christ our Savior. How wonderful it is that He sends His Holy
angels to watch over us day after day. How
blessed we are that we can say with Luther, “My
Heavenly Father defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from
all evil.” Why has our Father done
all this and continues to do all this? “Only out of fatherly, divine goodness and
mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.
For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey him. This is most certainly true!” Amen.
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