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The word Trinity cannot be found in the Bible, but the truth of it can. This Sunday we ask who is the Trinity and how does he relate to us? What does it mean to worship a triumph of God? It's not easy, right? It's really, really not easy. Um, you know, we we've heard different illustrations over time. Perhaps you've heard, oh, the Trinity is like an egg, there's the shell, and there's the egg white, and there's the yolk, or maybe someone has said, oh well, you know, like water, there's water and there's steam and there's ice. There's different illustrations, but they they don't fully, if you follow it uh down, it doesn't really hold up under closer scrutiny. Uh of all uh of all the biblical topics, all the passages, I must say this is one of the ones I I find most difficult. Um, and hopefully, uh I'm guessing by how quickly you all ended, perhaps you find it the same. Uh, but perhaps the Lord will speak to us this morning. It's challenging because the Trinity is a mystery. There is mystery to it, and we can understand it in part, but not in full. Church, shall we just take a very brief moment and invite the Lord to speak to us right now? Lord God, we thank you for this day. We thank you that we can come together. Would you speak to us this morning, Lord? We ask, because this is this is something difficult for us to understand and it is a mystery. Uh but we want to know you more. Would you reveal yourself to us even today? We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Uh this morning I'd like to introduce you to the book of Kells. I don't know if any of you have heard of this book before. It is an eighth-century gospel book. Okay, so this actually only had Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in it. And it's called an illuminated manuscript because they used local art styles uh to illustrate it. And in fact, the main thing for this was the illustrations rather than the text. And it's named after an abbey in Ireland, and right now it's held at Trinity College in Dublin. And I think uh we can have a look at one of the set of pages inside. Yeah, so you see, really, uh it was meant to be a work of art, it was sort of uh something to celebrate God's story in the Gospels. It wasn't something you just go and read, but you you would look at these and you would appreciate. And the reason I want to introduce you to this book of Cels just very briefly is because there's a little piece of artwork. There's something that they do inside of it, which for me really uh shows very well the Trinity. And that is, it's called the Celtic Triquetra, uh or the Trinity not, if you've ever heard of it. And so you see there are three different shapes, sort of connected together, sort of not, and they're all within this circle. And so to me, this really represents well the Trinity. They're separate parts, but they're not really separate either, and they're all connected together. So when we're talking about God, when we're talking about the Trinity, for me, this is something that helps me to connect. This has also been called the Trinity knot or the eternity knot. Now, the question is uh, is is the father God? Yes, the father is God, right? You're work with me here. Is the son God? Yes, the son is God. Is the spirit God? Yes, so do we believe in one God or three gods? One God, whoa, all right. We're doing very well, thank you. Reassured, good. Have you heard of the Shem Mah? Not Shema, the Shem Mah. This is the first word, and I think many of you will be familiar with it. The first word of Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4. Hear. Shema. And it's considered uh the most important prayer, perhaps in Jewish tradition, and it's spoken daily, and so it begins, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, the Lord is one. And so we are we are monotheistic. Praise the Lord. We believe in one God, one God. But we are also Trinitarian. And so, while there's only one God, we believe that the Godhead consists of three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so they are equal in stature, they're equal in authority, they're all equally divine, but they are different in role. And so the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they're all equally omniscient. That means that they are all knowing. There's not a limit to their knowing or their understanding. Even time doesn't get in the way. All knowing. They're omnipotent. All three are omnipotent, they have all power, they are all powerful. There are no limits to what can and cannot be done by them. They're omnipresent, they're they're everywhere present. And that's because they're not held back by uh substance. In a sense, they are insubstantial, right? Uh they're they are spirit, and so they are not limited by space, they can be everywhere, and they are eternal, they are without beginning and without end. All three eternal. And I think it's very important. You see, the triune God exists in perfect unity, and this is very important because I I must say this perfect unity we we have trouble understanding because all of us we struggle with unity, right? We really struggle with unity, we've never experienced a perfect unity. If I were to take any any five of you and ask you a question about something, I would get about eight different opinions, right? We we we struggle with unity, we struggle to come together. Even in the animal kingdom, uh, there's, you know, they group together, most of them, in unity, but somehow we as humans, we struggle with this so much. We can't even agree which is the best nasi lamak, which is the best laksa. We really struggle with the area of unity, and so it's hard for us to really grasp it. But within the Trinity, there is perfect unity. There's perfect harmony, there's no struggle to take the first place among equals. There's no division when it comes to direction and to judgment and to decisions. There's perfect unity within the Father and the Son and the Spirit. And the Father, he it's been said like this: the Father has created a plan, and the Son has implemented the plan, and the Holy Spirit administers the plan. And the plan for humanity, the plan is uh salvation. And so we see that they each have a role that they play, and there's perfect unity, and yet they are still distinct. And on Sundays where we have morning prayer, we always receive the apostles' creed. Is that right? And so within the apostles' creed, uh we affirm that we believe in all three. We say, I believe in God the Father Almighty. We proclaim, I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. We say, I believe in the Holy Spirit. This is part of our faith. Now, you won't find the word Trinity in the Bible, all right? If you go, you do a Google search, you do whatever kind of search, the word is not there. And it is a difficult concept. So how can it be that we believe that all three are divine and yet we believe in one God? Does anyone find this a bit? Uh we're brought up in a very logical fashion, and it's difficult, right? It's like one plus one plus one equals equals one. Uh and it's a it's a mystery that I I think we are just not capable of fully comprehending. It would be like if you have someone who was born blind from birth, and you're trying to explain to them what colors are. You you can explain, you can you can bring it across to where there is some understanding, but it just cannot be fully comprehended. We are like that when it comes to the Trinity. We can understand in part, but we cannot understand in full. It is too much for these human brains. It is a mystery for us. Now, just because it's difficult doesn't mean that it is untrue, right? It just means that we've stumbled against our limitations, and we need a different starting point then. And so that starting point would be the scriptures. So I think we'll turn to the scriptures now. Earlier, we we read the Shema, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. But we can travel back to the first verses in Genesis, which we had read for us uh just a little bit ago. It says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God, not in the beginning the gods, not in the beginning the three gods, in the beginning God. And so uh we see that, yes, we are right to say we we serve one God, and God, he is eternal, without beginning, without end. He existed long before our story and our reality. He's present there at creation. If we move along to verse 26 of the same chapter, then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And so he refers to himself now as a plural, right? Let us make man in our own image. So the us is God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. It's only when we move to the New Testament that we begin to have uh maybe more clear distinction between them. And so the Great Commission in Matthew, Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And that's what we do when we have baptisms, right? Because all three are God. We recognize all three are God. And I just to point out, I think in a natural way, we acknowledge the Father is God, we acknowledge the Son is God. The Holy Spirit, we we still not fully certain how to relate to sometimes, but I think we agree the Holy Spirit is God, amen. Amen. Okay, moving on. So all three are divine, and in John chapter six, verse twenty-seven, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal. God the Father, the Father is divine. Uh John 1 1 to uh verse 3. In the beginning, speaking of Jesus, right? In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. Jesus is God. And then after declaring that God had raised Christ from the dead, the New Testament goes on to credit the Holy Spirit with the resurrection. And so this is from Acts chapter 4, verse 10. It says, Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. God raised from the dead. So we go to Romans. It says, If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So it is the Spirit who raised him from the dead. So the Spirit is very clearly God as well. Now we're not in seminary. I'm not going to go uh like we would with a seminary class. But I think it is important for us to just look at uh a couple things related to the Trinity. The government has encouraged over and over everyone to get the COVID vaccine, and I don't want to go into a debate on that, but they do it because they want the population to be inoculated, to be protected against COVID. Um, we need to be protected by Scripture against false teachings as well. So I there are two heresies related to the Trinity that I just want to uh bring up here. The first is called modalism. Modalism is a belief that there is one God with three expressions. One God with three expressions. Uh but there's a problem with that, right? If you think of you think of different times in the New Testament, Jesus was there, the Father's voice comes, this is my son with whom I'm well pleased. If it's just one God with different expressions, it's a bit confused, right? Is he talking to himself? It doesn't, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. And so while on the surface we might think, oh, well, maybe it's like that, really it's not. They are three distinct persons. And so one modern example of this modalism heresy is called the Oneness Pentecostal Church. Okay, this is not talking about Pentecostalism, but the oneness Pentecostal Church believes this. They believe that it's very clear in their doctrine that there is one God, three expressions, but it is one, uh they're not distinct. It is just one God. And so this is uh this is something problematic. This is not something we believe, okay? Get your little jab here. We inoculate ourselves. We believe together one God in three distinct persons. Amen. Okay, one more is Arianism, and this was named after Arius of Alexandria in Egypt. And this was in early church times, and so Arianism states that Jesus was a created being, not co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. So there's a clear difference there. And he was condemned, uh, his teachings were condemned as heretical. And in the Nicene Council in 325 AD, uh they came up with a new creed. And I kind of wish we were able to say this one rather than the Apostles' Creed, but it says very clearly that they are each eternal, they are co-eternal and co-equal, and they are each God. And so this was indirect uh this was to address that heresy. Modern-day examples would be the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. This is known as the Mormon Church. And they believe uh in the doctrine that Jesus is the literal Son of God. God had a son. Not that he is eternal, but that he had a son. This is a problem for us because we believe that he is fully God, co-equal with God the Father and God the Spirit. And so uh even in early Mormonism, they even believed that Jesus and Satan were brothers because this idea they are created beings. Now they would deny that, but in the early days for them, they also had that belief. And the last one I want to watch, uh mention is the Jehovah's Witnesses. They teach that Jesus Christ is the archangel Michael, and he was the first created being. So we we need to take scripture and be aware what it says. Don't believe these things. And if someone brings a new teaching, go back to the scripture. What does the scripture say? The scripture says Jesus is God, the Spirit is God, the Father is God, and yet we serve one God. So this is our faith, this is what we believe. I I just want to summarize. See, the Father created the universe, and he also created the plan to save us, and he receives and he forgives us. The son is the fulfillment of scripture, and he died for our sins, and he rose again, and he mediates between mankind and the father. And the son, he implements the plan of the father. And the spirit is the seal of our salvation. If you are in Christ, the Holy Spirit has come to reside in you, the promise that you will be saved, that you are now grafted into God's family. And so the Spirit teaches and guides and convicts and comforts. He empowers all believers and administers the plan of the Father. There are thousands of books written about the Trinity. We could fill a small library with them. But if you remember nothing else, I want you to remember these three truths. Number one, the Trinity is a mystery. Okay, can you repeat with me? The Trinity is a mystery. It's just beyond our ability to comprehend it. Two, the Trinity exists in perfect unity. Amen? And three, God loves us. If you just come today and you're just filled with information, it is not enough. I want to remind you, God loves you. Can we recite together John 3.16? I think most of us know it by heart. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. God loves us. God loves you. God the Father loves you. God the Son loves you. God the Spirit loves you. And I hope you feel something in your heart responding to his love right now. He's so good to us. We pray that you've been ministered to the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Eastern Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.