Sermon: The Holy Trinity Pt. 1 - Trinity Within Me (John 14:15-17)

The Holy Trinity Pt. 1 – Trinity Within Me
Sunday, June 1st, 2025
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
John 14:15–17

Prayer

O God, we thank you for fashioning us in your image, and that through reflection upon your image within us, we may come to understand in some very partial and imperfect way who you are as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so as we undertake this task now, of faith seeking understanding, give us light and life and grace, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

When you first became a Christian and received the washing of baptism for the forgiveness of your sins, whether you knew it or not, you were born again into the very life of the Trinity. Ever since that day, when the name of God was spoken over you, in accord with what Jesus says in Matthew 28:19, “baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” from that day onward the Trinity of Persons came into you and made you their own.

• The Apostle Paul says to those naughty Corinthians who were baptized and yet committing grievous sins, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Cor. 6:19).
• Jesus says here in John 14:17 that the Spirit, “dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”
• He says later in John 17, “I do not pray for these alone [referring to his disciples], but also for those who will believe in Me through their word [that’s us!]; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me…I in them, and You in Me” (John 17:20-21, 23).
• Have you wondered, what in the world does that mean? What does it mean for the One God to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and then for that Trinity of persons to indwell our soul? Christ in us, the Spirit in us, the Father who is in the Son within us. How does all this work?
• This is a little bit like asking, How does breathing keep you alive?
  • We are all breathing. We all know how to breathe, but very few of us could draw an accurate diagram of the lungs, or explain how oxygen and carbon dioxide get exchanged, or how the autonomic nervous system makes us to inhale and exhale even when we are asleep.
  • Explaining how breathing keeps us alive can be done, but it requires some work, some study and exploration of the human body, it requires you to learn a specialized vocabulary so you can identify different organs, and muscles, and chemical compounds. This is similar to becoming personally acquainted with the Holy Trinity.
  • If there are unbelieving scientists who have dedicated their whole life to studying the human body, how much more should believing Christians give at least a little portion of their life, to knowing the God in whom we live and move and have our being? Even the very Trinity with us.
  • It is a good and wonderful thing to study God’s creation, especially the human person. We are complex and fascinating creatures! But it is far greater and more glorious task to know the Creator and Maker Himself. If human beings are as intricate and glorious and mysterious as we are, how much more the one who designed it all?
    • It says in Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me.”
    • Jesus says similarly in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
    • Understanding and knowing God is the highest of all human pursuits. So much so that Jesus says it is eternal life to know Him.
• And so if God is the supreme source and object of all human happiness, the very end for which we were created, and if He has revealed Himself in Christ and His Word, how can we not count all things as loss for the surpassing worth/value of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord? (Phil. 3:8).
  • This is the reason and the motivation for the hard work of our faith seeking understanding. Of believing the Word of God and then trying to understand that Word we already believe and breathe.
• The Church Father St. Augustine says at the beginning of his treatise On the Trinity, “in no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable.” In other words, if you want to know God, it is going to cost you something, indeed cost you everything, but the cost is worth it.
  • Or Jesus says in Matthew 13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” The Trinity is like the treasure hidden in a field you already own. It’s yours, you are the field!
  • And so lest those words from St. Augustine daunt us or discourage us from trying to explore this great treasure, I want to remind you that if you are a Christian, you have already been breathing Trinitarian oxygen from the moment you were born again. From the moment the Holy Spirit opened your eyes to trust Jesus to justify your soul, you became a Trinitarian Christian, even if you still cannot draw an accurate diagram of the Trinity.
    • It is not our ability to explain the mystery that saves us, it is the believing, the breathing, the confession of that mystery that effects our salvation.
    • Paul says in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
  • So when you confessed Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, what were you doing? You were breathing and speaking the Holy Trinity.
    • Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”
• And so my goal for us in this series of sermons on The Holy Trinity, is simply to help us become a little more aware of the spiritual oxygen that has been giving us life. Or, if you do not yet know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, perhaps you might inhale this breath of life for the very first time.
• So with that as our goal, this morning I want to introduce this reality that is The Trinity, by considering these three verses in John 14. And I want us to consider these verses with an eye to what is distinct and unique about each person in God.
• So the outline of our sermon is answering three questions.

Outline

• What is unique to the Father?
• What is unique to the Son?
• What is unique to the Holy Spirit?

Q#1 – What is unique to the Father?

• Notice first that Jesus directs his prayer to the Father.
  • According to his humanity, the Son who is God and who answers prayer, teaches us who are human to direct our prayers to the Father.
  • As man Jesus prays to the Father, but as God Jesus answers prayer with the Father.
• What then does Jesus say the Father will do in response to his prayer? He shall give another Comforter.
• Now if we were to gather up the rest of Jesus’ teaching about the Father (especially in John’s gospel), we would learn that the Father is the one who sends the son. And because of this sending of the Son, the Father is sometimes called by various names such as, Principle, Source, Author, Fountain, Head, etc. And what we mean by all those names is nothing else but that the Father is that from which another proceeds.
  • The Father is Principle of the Son, not as Cause to Effect, but only as Begetting the Son all that the Father has. And what does the Father have? The Divine Essence, Deity.
  • So when we call God Father, or Principle, or Fountain, we are not making the Son lesser or different in nature in any way.
  • The only distinction between Father and Son is that the Father begets the Son, and the Son is begotten from the Father, nothing else! Any other image or symbolic name must be reduced to that. There is no inequality, no hierarchy of power, the only order between them is that of relation of origin.
    • If you look at the picture on the back of the bulletin, this is represented visually by the Procession called “Generation,” from which we name two different Relations, 1) Paternity and 2) Filiation, Fatherhood and Sonship.
    • In God there are only two Processions, from whence we speak of 4 Relations, and from those 4 Relations we distinguish 3 Persons. More on that in a future sermon.
  • Summary: So we call God Father of the Son, and even Principle of the whole Deity, but without importing any inequality, or any difference of nature, or any real priority of being between Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all together eternally the One God.
• And so returning to our question, What is unique to the Father? Jesus says He is: Giver of the Comforter, and Sender of the Son.
• And so we might say (by appropriation), it is the Father’s unique personal property to be Generous, to be a Giver, to overflow and abound with goodness.
  • To speak improperly but still truly we could say that the Father cannot help himself, He just “has to” bestow lavish and wonderful things upon those He loves. He can’t help himself; it is His very nature as Father to give.
  • Isn’t this how Scripture speaks elsewhere of a good father’s character? Think of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son and how the father runs to his son with rejoicing and showers him with gifts, a ring, new clothes, and then throws him a party. Is that the portrait of God as Father that you have in your mind? Because that is much closer to reality than the stern and frowning face God that too many people have.
  • Or consider James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
    • Observe, not only is the Father said to be the source of every gift, He is an unchangeable and unceasing source of perfect goodness (“no variableness, neither shadow of turning”).
    • Yes, there may be dark and brooding clouds over your life, sin and suffering that obscures your vision of what is true, but behind that storm is always and ever the shining face of a Good and Generous Father, who is pure unchangeable love.
  • Don’t you want to have that God as your Father? Don’t you want to have assurance that behind all your pain is a Father who permits no evil to touch you unless it works for your good? A Father who permits no evil to take place in this world unless it magnifies His grace. A Father who permits no temptation to ensnare us without providing a way of escape. Because that is what the Fatherpromises to those who love Him (Rom. 8:28).
• So what mental image do you have of the Father? And does it match what Jesus tells us about Him?
  • What we learn from Jesus here, is that the Father is the one to pray to, and the one to go to for help. The Father is like the Missionary Hub, the Central Headquarters, from which all Divine Comfort shall be sent. He sends the Son, and He sends the Spirit. He is the sender and source of the two divine missions that save the world.
  • That is who we are addressing in prayer, when we say, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” And if it is the Father’s unique property to be Principle, to be the Source from whence even the other uncreated Divine Persons proceed, of course He is also the giver of every good and every perfect gift we receive. And so this should be motivation for us to pray. Our Father wants to answer.
  • St. Augustine says in another work on prayer, “Our good Lord often does not give us what we wish, because it would really be what we do not wish for.” In other words, Our Father knows better than us what is good, and when we ask for something that is actually good for us, He will certainly and always give it.
    • Or as Psalm 84:11 puts it, “No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.
• That is the Father, do you know Him?

Q#2 – What is unique to the Son?

• To start with the obvious, the Son is Jesus Christ. And unlike the Father and the Spirit, the Son alone has joined a human nature to His Divine Person.
• Moreover, we observe in these verses that the Son is the one teaching. Jesus says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Jesus speaks with God-like authority.
• And earlier in John 14:1 he says, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
• And then he says to Phillip, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10-11).
  • So notice there is both equality and distinction between Father and Son, they are both God in whom Jesus tells them to believe, they both indwell one another, and yet Jesus says, “the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me.”
• And so the fact that Jesus is the one teaching and speaking what the Father tells him, from this visible ministry is reflected what Jesus is invisibly according to His divine nature, namely the Son, Word, and Image who proceeds from the Father. These names, Son, Word, and Image are the unique/proper names of the Son.
  • This is of course how John’s Gospel began, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
  • The book of Hebrews begins likewise by emphasizing the Son as Word and Image of the Father. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:1-3).
  • Because Jesus is Son, Word, and Image, he can say to Phillip, “if have seen me, you have seen the Father.” That is, if you have seen the Son’s divine nature, you have seen the Father’s divine nature also, because it is identical. We are both the one God.
    • So to give you a human example for comparison. Imagine there were two perfectly identical twins, who had not the tiniest feature or freckle to distinguish one from the other. Even their voices sounded exactly the same. You could truly say that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen the other, no visible difference between them.
    • However, the Father and the Son are an even more perfect unity than that, for while human twins nature (humanity), they are also two different beings with two distinct existences. This is not so with God. The Father and the Son are distinct persons who have One Existence, One Being, One Undivided Essence. We say God’s essence is His existence, and this the Father, Son, and Spirit have together as One.
    • The only real distinction in God is by opposition of relation. The persons are not distinct from God, they are God. The persons are only distinct from one another in their relations of origin. The Father is from none. The Son is from the Father. And the Spirit is from Father and Son together as one principle.
• Summary: So what is unique to the Son?
  • He alone became incarnate, to die and rise for our salvation. He alone has joined a human nature to His Divine Person.
  • But what is unique to Him as a Divine Person?
  • He is the Son of the Father. The Father is His eternal origin. He is the Word the Father has spoken, and the perfect Image of what the Father is. Their essence is One.

Q#3 – What is unique to the Holy Spirit?

• Next week we will explore this in much greater depth, but for now just observe that Jesus calls the Spirit by the names Comforter and Spirit of Truth. We also learn from Jesus that the Spirit is sent from both Father and the Son.
  • Jesus says a few verses later in verse 26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
  • And then in John 15:26, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.”
• So whereas the Son is begotten from the Father (proceeding by Generation), what is unique to the Holy Spirit is that his eternal origin is by way of procession (or what we call “common spiration) from Two Divine Persons, Father and Son.
  • For this reason the Spirit is sometimes called the “love bond” or “breath” of Father and Son. He is portrayed at Jesus’ baptism as a dove descending from Father to Son. Other images of the Spirit we find are that of wind and fire and healing oil. The Spirit is the joy and delight of Father and Son, and therefore the unique personal names of the Holy Spirit are Love and Gift.
• Here in our text, we will focus on this name of the Spirit which in Greek is παράκλητος (Paraclete), and is translated as Comforter or Helper, or Advocate.
  • The idea here is that the Spirit is going to help and comfort and advocate for the disciples when Jesus is no longer physically present. The Spirit is the spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Father and Son, and he will animate and move the disciples to accomplish God’s will.
• We also learn from these names Comforter and Spirit of Truth how God likes to help us and console us.

Conclusion

• So let us conclude with a few reflections on how the Holy Spirit helps us in our daily life as Christians. And this is a place where knowing the Holy Spirit is a lot like becoming conscious of your own breathing. You usually recognize His presence only after He has worked in you, or when you are sinning and feel his absence. So three ways the Spirit helps us:
  • 1. The Holy Spirit helps us by moving us to pray.
    • Whether from habit or routine, or from some sudden and urgent need, whenever we are moved to pray, it is the Holy Spirit who has moved us to pray.
      • Paul says in Romans 8:28, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness,” and in Ephesians 6:18,“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”
      • So a life of prayer is a life lived in the Holy Spirit, and this is why Paul says, “pray without ceasing” and don’t quench the Holy Spirit.”
  • 2. The Holy Spirit is the internal teacher of truth.
    • There are many external teachers of truth, among which are pastors, teachers, theologians, books, and even Scripture itself. But what makes that external hearing of the Word real and true inside our hearts, is the Holy Spirit teaching us.
      • Jesus says to his disciples in John 16:13, “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.”
      • And in Romans 8:16 it says, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
      • And 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
    • So whenever you read the Bible (the external teacher), and understand what it says, that internal process of judging what is true and what is false, is a work of the Holy Spirit leading your spirit into truth.
      • The same Spirit who inspired the written word of God, is the one makes that word to come alive within us. So to be full of the Spirit is to be full of the Spirit’s Word, to know the truth.
    • So the Spirit helps us to pray, and the spirit consoles us with truth, and then third and most importantly…
  • 3. The Holy Spirit moves us to love.
    • And it is this movement to love God and keep His commandments, and to prefer spiritual things to worldly things that most reveals the Trinity Dwelling Within Us.
    • It says in 1 John 3:23-24, “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”
    • And so if you love Jesus, you love him because He first loved you, and He gave you the Holy Spirit to help you love Him in return.
    • And so the most evident sign of the Trinity alive within us is a heart that is alive with love. The world does not know this, and the world cannot produce this, only the Trinity within us can.
  • St. Gregory the Great once said, “the Holy Spirit inflames everything he fills with a desire for invisible things. And because worldly hearts love only visible things, the world does not receive him, because it does not rise to the love of what is invisible. For worldly minds, the more they widen themselves with their desires, the more they narrow the core of their hearts to the Spirit.”
    • So what do you most desire? Visible things, or invisible things? Sensible goods or spiritual goods?
    • If you are full of the Holy Spirit, then you have already beheld by faith the supreme object of your affections. For as David in the Spirit declares, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides You” (Ps. 73:25).
    • May God grant this to be the yearning of your heart, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.