COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY AND DAILY STUDIES BASED UPON OUR PREACHING SERIES AT COMMUNITY CHURCH PUTNEY)
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COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY STUDY NOTES
Like our previous attribute (God’s Self-Sufficiency or Aseity) the
Trinity is something that is a bit like things we experience, but is also
nothing like anything we know of. Any analogy will diminish the fathomless
mystery of the Trinity in some way.
WHAT IS THE TRINITY?
Put simply (as the diagram shows) God is...
- Three distinct persons (the Son is not the Father or the Spirit etc.)
- Each person is fully God (The Father, Son and Spirit are each fully God)
- There is one God (one essence)
Ø
To check you understand this, discuss how
something like water – being one substance but can also be liquid, solid and
gas - is like but very unlike the Trinity.
All illustrations like water, a three-leaf clover, an egg (shell, white,
yolk) a man (having mind, spirit and body) etc. will always lean toward the
unity of the three or the separateness of them; nothing in creation is three
and one so utterly completely.
Ø What does Genesis
1:26-27 say about how many persons were involved in creation and in whose image
we are made?
Read John 1:1-3
and discuss,
Ø
What was Jesus relationship to ‘God’? (1:1)
Ø
How much did Jesus create and what does this
say to those who argue that Jesus was a very special creation? (1:3)
Ø
‘In Him
was life…’ this is John’s way of saying that Jesus is self-existent (as we saw last
week) unlike mankind into whom God breathed the ‘breath of life’ (Gen. 2:7)
Jesus has life: He has always been alive and can create new physical and
spiritual life.
Ø
‘A god’ or
‘God’ false teachers have translated it ‘a god’ thus, whilst honoring Jesus,
dethrone Him as less than God. The reality is that no ‘a’ exists in the Greek
from which it is translated. They are imposing their belief that Jesus is
created onto the text.
LET’S RESPOND TO WHO GOD IS
Mankind is made in the image of God who is Trinity. This has a number of
implications:
Ø
The church has different gifts and
personalities whilst seeking loving unity. How can we work at both to these
things?
Ø
The Trinity speaks of equality and submission.
The Son submits to the Father and the Spirit to the Father and the Son. How is
this to be reflected in church life, marriage and family life? (See Ephesians
5:22-25)
Ø
The persons of the Trinity are each fully God.
What does this say about the worth and dignity of every human being?
GOING DEEPER PERSONAL DAILY STUDIES
Monday: Baptised into Trinity
Matthew 28: 19 “Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
Jesus’ commissioning highlights the unity (’name’) and diversity
in God (‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’). Baptism (which all believers are to
undergo!) speaks of devotion to the name into which one is baptised; are we
devoted to the Father, Son and Spirit? Are we passionate to make Him known?
Tuesday: Diversity is good
God has created a
world of great diversity and beauty. Within mankind He has created the diversity
of two distinct genders,
Genesis 1:27 So
God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he
created them; male and female he created them.
He has created
different races and cultures,
Acts 17:26 From one man he made all the
nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their
appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
(‘Nations’ is ‘ethnos’
which means a number of people living together bound together by like habits
and customs)
This means that we are
to celebrate diversity, realising that God is a God of diversity and unity.
Wednesday: Difference is a gift
Within the church God
has created us all differently, with different gifts, to be used to build the
local church.
Ephesians 4:10-13 He
who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in
order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the
apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and
teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of
Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in
the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the
whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Don’t wait to be given
space or an official position. Seek to use the gifts God has given to you in various
relationships that you have.
Thursday: Unity is good
In the text from
yesterday (Ephesians 4:10-13) we see that the goal of the gifts is to ‘build up…unity in the faith… knowledge of
the Son… maturity… fullness’. The devil wants us to become proud,
frustrated and disillusioned with how we are treated in regard to our gifts or
how gifts are used in the church. God loves unity. Just look at God’s at the
unity of the Trinity in this passage,
Matthew 3:16-17 As
soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven
was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom
I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Let’s pray for the
church and ourselves, that we would love
the unity of the church as the members of the Trinity delight in one another.
Friday: God is with us by the Spirit
The Trinity is three
distinct persons who are also one (in essence). One cannot say the Father is
the Son who is the Spirit! We must try to avoid prayers like “Thank you Jesus
for giving your only Son…” This is to falsely unify the persons (confound). But
we can also hold diversity in a wrong manner:
for example, the Father and the Son are in heaven; it’s the Spirit who is
God’s presence on earth. But the unity of the godhead means that we can also
say that Jesus is with us by the Spirit because the unity of God is never
broken – hope that makes sense!
John 1416-20 And
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you
and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept
him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he
lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I
will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will
see me. Because I live, you also will live. On
that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me,
and I am in you.
Saturday: Pray to the Father, through the Son
by the Spirit
The Trinitarian and biblical norm of prayer is
that we pray to the Father (Matt.
6:9); by the Son – prayer being made
possible because of Jesus’ death for our sin (Heb. 10:19); By the Spirit – Our faith in Jesus and our experience of God’s
presence is by the Spirit (Eph. 6:18)
