Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 15th of June, 2025 - Father's Day and Trinity Sunday.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, today is Father’s Day, but it’s also the first Sunday after our celebration of the Pentecost event in Jerusalem.  Reading the Old Testament, we can see where God would send His Spirit to help certain people carry out a specific mission for a limited time.  In today’s lingo, we’d call these “one-off” events.

At Pentecost, that all changed.  Now, God - at the request of His Son Jesus - sends His Spirit to dwell in any and all believers when they accept Jesus as Lord.  This is the promise Jesus made before leaving us to go home, and the promise our good Father kept.

Our heavenly Father, His Son, and His Holy Spirit.  You may have guessed by now that while today is Father’s Day, it is also Trinity Sunday.

There are a number of places in our bible where we can find references - hints, in some cases – to the three persons of God.  And yes, even in the Old Testament, as we can see in the passage from Genesis.  In those cases, Jesus, the Son, before He became flesh, oftentimes came into the world, but was referred to then as “the Angel of God”, with a capital “A”.

The New Testament passages clearly identify Jesus by name, as the Son of God, even though He usually called Himself the Son of Man.  That particular title rankled the Pharisees and scribes, because it is a description the prophet Daniel used to describe the future Judge and King as “One, like the Son of Man”, coming with the clouds, given all authority and power by God.  Jesus probably also used the title to remind people of His own humanity, so they could better relate to Him.

At any rate, we could easily pick from several passages from either Testament to examine the Holy Trinity, but I was led to one that I think most clearly points to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, their interaction with each other, and their importance to us.  Please listen and follow along to this momentous event as recorded by the Apostle Matthew in the 3rd chapter of his Gospel account, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

Make His paths straight.’”

4 Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him 6 and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”

15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

--Matthew 3 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son Jesus to redeem us of our sin.  And thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit to be with us always, our constant Companion and Guide.  You are such a good Father to us, so it hurts us to admit that we are not the most obedient or appreciative children like we should be.  You do so much for us, yet we often fail to follow Your most basic command.  Too many things in life distract us, trying to pull us away from You.  Please forgive us our lapses, Father.  Help us more closely follow Your commands so we can grow ever closer to You and our Lord Jesus.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better grasp the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Dr. Bruce L. Shelley, in his book Christian Theology in Plain Language, explains the Holy Trinity in this way:  “Within His own mysterious being God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The designations are just ways in which God is God.  Within the Godhead there are three ‘persons’ who are neither three Gods nor three parts of God, but coequally and coeternally God.”

The Trinity has long been a concept that confuses people, even good solid Christians.  But if we think of it more along the lines of three distinct functions, or duties, or responsibilities, it may be easier to grasp.

Most of us have, or had multiple roles in our lives.  Husband, father, breadwinner, provider.  Wife, mother, nurturer, comforter.  Myself, I am a father, while my parents lived I was a son, and I have a spirit within me that gives me life, and that joins with God’s Spirit to keep my faith alive.

God our Father is our Provider, seeing to our needs in this life.  Our Father God’s Son Jesus does the will of His Father and provides redemption for mankind’s sin.  And God’s Holy Spirit guides us, and even prays for us when we can’t find the words.  Our God, in His Three Persons, sees to all our needs.

We’re all familiar with this story in our scripture reading this morning.  John the Baptizer is busy at work at the River Jordan, preaching a message of repentance, baptizing people, harassing Pharisees…  the usual.  And then Jesus walks up for His turn to be baptized.  John resisted this, thinking that Jesus should be baptizing him rather than the other way around.  But Jesus responds that it has to be done, that He must be baptized in fulfillment of righteousness and Messianic prophecy.  So John consents and baptizes Jesus there in the river, and next comes the Happy Father’s Day moment.  As Jesus rose from the waters, the heavens opened and God’s Holy Spirit descended, alighting onto Jesus.  And then the voice from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

That was a proud Papa, acknowledging this Man, Jesus, is His Son.  Very few things bring a father as much joy as acknowledging their child, and their child’s accomplishments.  God left no doubt whatsoever that Jesus is His Son, His Christ, sent to work His plan.  Father and Son.

The Holy Spirit had a role in this passage, too.  He came down from His heavenly home to live in Jesus, to help Him through the coming times.  As I mentioned earlier, we can view this as one of those “one-off” visitations of the Spirit, except in this case the Spirit stayed with Jesus until the end.

But before that time, before Jesus left us, He promised another Helper would come to us, God's Holy Spirit, sent from the Father.  Please hear the words Jesus spoke as recorded by the Apostle John in the 14th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 15 through 17…

15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

--John 14:15-17 (NKJV)

If we truly do love Jesus, we will keep His commandments, do what He told us to do.  And it we do love Him, it means we believe in Him and have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, that we recognize Him as the Son of God, the Christ.

So the promise is that when He returns to heaven, He will ask His Father, God, to send His Holy Spirit to us, and God fulfilled this promise beginning at Pentecost.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Now Jesus knew how much trouble His followers had in fully understanding things He told them of the future.  So He often repeated Himself, maybe changing how He expressed His message, making it as easy as He could to still get the point across.

This issue of the indwelling Holy Spirit is no exception.  A little later in chapter 16 of his Gospel account, verses 12 through 15, John again captures the words Jesus spoke, clarifying what the Spirit will do for them, and for us…

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

--John 16:12-15 (NKJV)

We have the benefit of 2,000 years of study and the witness accounts of the men who walked with Jesus for three years, yet there are still things Jesus could say to us that we cannot bear, things we still are not able to understand.  And we’re not meant to understand everything, not yet, not until we meet Jesus face to face.  But we do have God’s Spirit to help us through this life, even through the things that we don’t understand.

Right now, in this life, we can only wonder why God allows evil to run helter-skelter through the world.  Someday, He’ll explain it all to us.  For now, though, the Father will provide for our needs, the Son will cover our sins, and the Spirit will keep trying to guide us around all the pitfalls and lead us into righteousness.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – they’ve got our back.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for being such a good Father.  You watch over us, You provide for us, You listen to us, You love us, even when we misbehave.  We are saved because of Your love.  We are redeemed because of Your Son.  We live because of Your Spirit.  It saddens us, Father, when we think of all the souls who will never accept Jesus as Your Son.  There are even those who deny Your existence, and the existence of Your Holy Spirit.  And there are many who have not heard of Jesus, have not been told of all He did and taught.  We admit that we have not done as good a job as we could reaching out to these people.  Too often we find excuses not to carry out our mission of making more disciples.  Sometimes we’re too busy, too distracted.  Sometimes we’re just too hesitant, too afraid of getting it all wrong and doing more harm than good.  Please forgive us those times, dear Father.  Please help us reach out to the lost, to anyone who does not know Jesus as their personal Savior.  Help us be more like Your Son in our love and our ways.  Help us show Your love to others by giving of ourselves, giving of our love freely, unconditionally, sacrificially, just as Jesus gave of Himself for us.  And please help us share our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You left Your Father and Your heavenly home to come and live among us, as one of us.  You came to offer us salvation and redemption of our sin.  And You arranged it with Your Father for Him to send the Holy Spirit to live within us and be with us as long as we draw breath.  Thank You, Jesus, for giving Your all for us.  Lord, we know it disappoints You, but sometimes we struggle to show our love by doing as You have commanded us.  You told us to love others, even our enemies.  But it's so hard to love all people, to give more of ourselves to those who don’t care about us.  It’s not even all that easy to love some of our fellow believers.  It hurts to admit it, be we let our worldviews get in the way of our love.  And too often we hesitate to witness to You and the Gospel, making more disciples.  Please help us in our struggles to show You to the world.  Help us be more like You, loving all others, even those who hate us and wish us harm, without any concern for reward or recognition or even being loved in return.  Help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to do to lead the lost to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Happy Father’s Day, God.  Amen.