Genesis: 10 Big Questions : Who is God?

Transcription

1 Genesis: 10 Big Questions : Who is God? Jim Essian : January 18, 2015 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2) You'll notice in Genesis chapter one that the Bible starts with God. It starts with God, and that's not a small matter at all. Some Christians, they want to start in Genesis chapter three, and they want to start with sin. And so they start with sin, not God. That is the story. The story starts with sin. Or some Christians, they'll start in Genesis two. They'll start the story with man, with us, with humanity; but not with God. Or some others--and these tend to recycle a lot--those will start in Genesis one with Creation. They'll start the story with Creation, and that's where they start the story, but not with God. But the Bible, if you notice, in verse one says, "In the beginning, God." It starts with God. The Bible starts with God. Now, if you start the story in Genesis three with sin, then the problem is that we have strayed from some moral code; and salvation is then, we being invited back into law abiding citizens. That's what salvation is if you start with Genesis three with sin. And then God, if you start with Genesis three and sin, is a cosmic policeman who has given that law and is going to blow the whistle on you if you don't follow that law; and so we need to obey Him. That's what happens if you start with Genesis three. If you start with Genesis two with man, humanity; then what happens is the story is about us. We are the center of the universe. And the problem is that we either haven't fully evolved yet, and we need to, and once we get there it will be much better; or we need to return to some future glory version of ourselves and that's the problem. And so then, salvation is us trying to better ourselves or self help our lives, and God becomes this kind of cheerleader or life coach while we do it. For many of you that's your understanding of Christianity--"I've got to get better; God wants to help. God wants to help." Now, if you start with Genesis one and Creation, if that's where the story starts, then the problem is just Creation has been broken by wicked humans, and we need to restore it back to its original utopia. Or, if you're an evolutionist, Creation is getting better; it's going to get

2 better; it's going to become paradise; we just need to be a part of it. And so salvation is Creation getting better, and us taking part in that. And then God becomes sort of a quasi Dances with Wolves, Avatar meets recycling guy. That's God then, at that point. Now, all of these views have partial truths in them, but they fall incomplete because they don't start where the story actually starts. The Bible starts with God. "In the beginning, God." And so we need to start the story with God. We can't start the story with man; we can't start the story with sin; we can't start the story with Creation. And so we start with this question then, who is this God? In the beginning, God. Who is this God? What is this God like? And it says that He created; why does He do that? And so we have to ask these questions. If we need to start the story with God, if the Bible starts the story with God, then who is this God that it's starting with? Which God are we talking about here? Are we talking about the Babylonian god, Marduk who wanted to create, and then he realized that it was going to take a lot of work; and now there's this big mess of creation? And so he said to the other gods, here's what I'll do, I'll create man, and they can be my slaves, so that I can kind of retire in creation--go to some sort of cosmic Florida, playing shuffleboard and drinking pina coladas. Is that God that we start with? Marduk? Is that the God that we should begin with? Do we start with the Greek gods? The Greek gods. They're just fighting--conflict, war. Creation is just splattered out in response to their warring against each other. They just can't get along. So it's kind of like Creation being this living room after four brothers have just kind of fought and wrestled and played; and that's what Creation is: this mess of a thing that results from a bunch of gods, immature gods fighting. Do we start with the Greek gods? Is that where we should start? Should we start with the Mormon god? The Mormon god has god the father starting as a mere mortal, a man, and working up to a deity. And then he literally father's a spirit son named Jesus by some heavenly mother that we don't know or haven't met. And we, in fact, can become just like him; we can become gods too. Do we start with that god? Should we start with Allah? Should we start with an unknown god? Is there not a god that we even know about? And maybe all these other gods are just a figment of our imaginations in this god we can't grasp or understand. Were the Athenians right when the Apostle Paul shows up, and there's an idol to the unknown god? We don't know who he is, but we want to worship him just in case he's out there. Which God do we start with if the story starts with God? If we should start with God, which God are we talking about? You could even go further. Can God be known? Can He be known at all? Is there a God at all? Have we invented this God? If there is a God, how could we possibly conceive of Him, or

3 think that we could find Him, or even think that we would be seeking Him and know who He is and what He's like? Wouldn't a God, a divine, eternal, infinite being have to reveal Himself to us? Wouldn't it? Do the ants know that we exist, or would we have to reveal ourselves to a lesser being? How does this work? Could we even know God? Has He revealed Himself to us? These are questions that are vital for our story. Since we find ourselves in the midst of the story, we have to understand then, how the story began. The story begins with God. Who are we talking about then, and what is He like? So look at Genesis one, again. We are going to spend a few minutes in Genesis one, and you can also put your thumb in John one and John seventeen if you would like, because we're going to spend a few minutes there also. Genesis chapter one. We will look at the first two verses and get a glimpse of the God of the Bible, and then we'll take a little tour through the Bible and get more of a glimpse. Genesis chapter one, verse one. Who is this God? "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Now in the Hebrew here, the word for God in verse one is Elohim. Elohim. It's this name for the transcendence of God over His creation; it's a magisterial name. It means, He's distinct from Creation; He's over Creation; He has authority over all of Creation. Elohim. And so usually God's name in the Old Testament is Yahweh. Yahweh, the Lord. And that's more of a personal name for God. He's a personal God of the Jews; He is their God, and they are His people; that's Yahweh. But Elohim is different. Elohim is a little more big; it's a little more transcendent. It's "I'm not just the God of the Israelites, I'm the God over all Creation." That's what Elohim means. And in the Hebrew, it's a plural name. It's plural; it's Gods is what it s saying. And so what some people say, and some people interpret is they read the Trinity into Elohim. They say this is the Trinity; this is God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; that's what it's referring to. And then there's a debate. Some people don't think that. Some say it's what's called the plural of majesty. That it's this big name, this big God; and so it's plural to note how big and transcendent this God is. If that doesn't make any sense, just consider the theologian, the dude from The Big Lebowski, when he says it's the royal we, man. That's what we are talking about; the royal we --The only people laughing are those who saw The Big Lebowski. All of you should repent if you haven't seen it-- and still others will look at verse twenty-six-- how have you not seen The Big Lebowski? What is wrong with this church?-- Verse twenty-six, they'll look at it and they'll say, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." And they'll look at verse twenty-six in the plural form used there and say, it's not that, and it's not the Trinity. It's God addressing the heavenly courts, the Angels; and saying, hey let's do this, let's create, and then let's create man. The problem with that is God doesn't

4 create man in the Angels image, but in God's image. And so we run into some problems there. And so there's this debate over Elohim. What is it referring to? Is it referring to the Trinity or not? Now, we don't know for sure. But there's no worries because in the very next verse you have a plural God, because all of a sudden the Spirit of Elohim shows up in verse two. "And the Spirit of God [is] hovering [He's fluttering] over the face of the waters." And so in verse two you all of a sudden have a different person of the Godhead, and then all of a sudden God starts speaking; He starts saying things into existence; His Word goes forth. In John chapter one, we'll see in a second, says that that is the Son. And so in Genesis and throughout the Old Testament you have a shadowed view of the Trinity. And throughout, He's unveiling and revealing himself. And that crescendos, climaxes into the New Testament and in the person of Jesus, where Jesus comes and reveals the fullness of the Godhead, reveals the Father, reveals, of course, the Son, and reveals the Spirit. And so in Genesis one and in the Old Testament, the Trinity is clouded, it's veiled; but He's unveiling Himself, and that happens in the New Testament. So you have Colossians one: Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Hebrews one: He's the exact imprint of His nature and the radiance of His glory. You've got Jesus Himself saying, "I and the Father are one." And so Jesus shows up and reveals that God is a loving Father, a beloved Son, and a Holy Spirit. And so it's veiled in the Old Testament, the Trinity; unveiled in the New Testament, the Trinity, this Triune God of the universe. And so Genesis starts with, "In the beginning, God." Who is this God? Well the rest the Bible tells us. The Bible--and I want you to understand this and hear this, because it really, really helps to be foundational in this understanding--the Bible is not about you. It's not about you, and it's not about what you need to do. The Bible is firstly primarily about God and what God has done. The Bible is God revealing Himself to us; otherwise, we wouldn't know Him. Otherwise, we wouldn't know Him. And so the rest of the Bible explains who this Triune God of the universe is--the Father, Son, and Spirit. And so let's talk about it. Let's unpack. What does this mean that God is Trinity? So by Trinity, what we mean is that there is one God in three distinct persons--father, Son, and Spirit. So there is one God, but He is three persons, distinct persons in the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And I want to say at this point, here's what's really important: the Trinity is Christianity. Without the Trinity, you don't have Christianity. Without the Trinity, you don't have the Gospel of the Bible, the good news of Jesus. Without the Trinity, you have every other religion. There is no other religion that holds to the Biblical understanding of the Trinity. Most false doctrines and heresies don't have the Trinity; they get the Trinity wrong. And then all that we inherently, as people, value and hold dear to, like love and relationships and service and generosity--those types of things--overflows from the reality of

5 the Trinity. Without the Trinity, we lose those things that we love; we lose those things. It is unbelievably important that God is triune, and I want to prove it to you, and I want to show it to you. So when we talk about the Trinity, we mean this: one God in three distinct persons. Let's talk about that. One God. This is obvious throughout the Scriptures. Deuteronomy six, there is one God; one God. "The Lord your God is one." And God reveals Himself to Israel. And throughout the Scriptures you have the command to worship that one God, in fact, only worship that one God. And so you have one God, and yet there's also three distinct persons in that one God. And so throughout you have pictures, and some are more explicit than others, showing the Trinity. Perhaps the most explicit picture of the Trinity is Jesus's baptism. If you remember Jesus's baptism, He is about to embark on His three year ministry that ends at the cross and the empty tomb, and He goes to see John the Baptist who if you read the story is not really "Baptist." I mean, he's kind of a weird dude. He's more non denominational. But they call him the Baptist because he s baptizing people, and Jesus goes to be baptized by John the Baptist, and John the Baptist baptizes Jesus. Jesus comes up out of the water, and you have the Father speaking, right? What does He say? "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And then John says, I saw the Spirit of God flutter, hover over Jesus like a dove. So you have the Son, you have the Spirit, and you have the Father; it's echoing all the way back to Genesis one where you have God, His Word going forth, and the Spirit hovering over the waters. It's the same thing. In Genesis one the Trinity is creating; at Jesus's baptism the Trinity is beginning to re create what has been broken; it's beautiful. So you have this glorious portrait in Jesus's baptism of the Trinity, the Triune God of the universe, the Father who loves the Son, who gives the Spirit to the Son. And then you have Jesus after His resurrection. He spent forty days hanging out with the disciples and others showing that He was resurrected. And He's going to ascend into heaven, and He tells the disciples the great commission, "Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name [it's singular, one name, the name of who?] of the Father, Son, and Spirit." So you have Jesus saying, Hey, baptize them in my name, God's name. Who is that God? He's Father, Son, and Spirit. So, it's this mysterious idea that God is three and one, and yet it's also quite simple, God is three and one. It may be hard for us to understand and grasp how it mathematically works. God's not asking us to do this; He just says, here I am, three and one. I'm diversity; I'm unity; I'm three persons, yet one. One God. And then the New Testament writers, they'll speak of the Trinity all the time. Here are just a couple of examples: 1 Peter 1:2, Peter says, "according to the foreknowledge of God the

6 Father [there's the Father], in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you." He blesses them in the name of the Trinity. And Paul, 2 Corinthians 13:14, he says, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God [that's the Father] and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." And then you have Jesus Himself in Luke 10; it says, "[Jesus] rejoicing in the Holy Spirit and said, 'I [praise] you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth." So, in the Spirit, Jesus the Son praises the Father. And throughout the New Testament you see this. You see the Triune God of the universe revealed. And so what do we mean by Trinity? We mean that God is one, but God is three. God is one in three distinct persons. Now, here's where we got to do some teaching. This is where some people mess up the Trinity, and it goes really bad. So when we say three distinct persons, here's what we mean: God the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. But the Father is not the Son or the Spirit; the Son is not the Spirit or the Father; the Spirit is not the Father or the Son. Did you get that? The Father is God; Son is God; Spirit is God, but they're not each other. So by distinct, we mean they are distinct. See, some people will teach--and it's called Modalism--in fact, some Christian denominations teach this, that God is not three distinct persons, but that He's one God who can manifests Himself in different modes throughout history. So if you ever have thought of the Old Testament God as being kind of grumpy and angry and not very nice, and then somehow He just kind of chills out in the New Testament, and He just gets a little bit calmer--maybe He went to counselling, maybe He's stopped drinking caffeine and He's drinking green tea now, and He's doing yoga or something, And now He's the Spirit and now He's fluttering around and dropping pixie dust on us--if you ever thought of God changing like that, you have been taught modalism, and it's a false teaching. It's not true of who the Godhead is, of who the Trinity is. Michael Reeves, who wrote one of my favorite books of all time on the Trinity, he calls it not modalism, but moodalism, which is funny; and he says this: If the Son is just a mood God slips in and out of, then for us to be adopted as children in the Son is no great thing: when God moves on to another mood, there will be no Son for us to be in. And even when God is in his Son mood, there will be no Father for us to be children of. And if the Spirit is just another one of his states of mine, I can only wonder what will happen when God feels like moving on. 'He fills me, he fills me not, he loves me, he loves me not, who knows.' The moodalist is left with no assurance and a deeply confused God. Somehow the Son must be his own Father, send himself, love himself, pray to himself, seat himself at his own right hand and so on. It all begins to look, dare I say, rather silly.

7 The Father is not the Son or the Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father or the Son; they are distinct, yet they are one. They are distinct, and yet they are one. See, we have this understanding sometimes that the Father is angry, and Jesus kind of calms Him down and says, Hey you know it's okay, I love these people. I want to die for them. I want to give my life for them." And somehow God is appeased by that. That's not the message of the Bible. And I heard a sermon on that, and it crushed me because you've got people then not knowing the love of the Father. It's the Father that sent Jesus, and it's Jesus who then sends the Spirit, and they do it that they might be known and loved; and it's beautiful. And you lose that if you hold to modalism where the Father just poofs into the Son, and the Son poofs into the Spirit. Three distinct persons; one God. So they are distinct, but then they are also personal. And so what we mean by person, we mean literally person. We don t mean they are impersonal; they can be known; they can be loved. It's a personal God that were talking about. The Father can be known and loved; the Son can be known and loved; the Spirit can be known and loved. So the Father, He can be known and loved. We see throughout Scripture that the Father loves and creates and sends and provides and gives and speaks. The Father can be saddened. Genesis 6:6--we'll get to it in like eight months, in Genesis six-- "And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart." The Father can be grieved, and if you're a daddy, you know that that's true. And so when we say personal, we mean personal. The Father is personal. And the Son, of course, is personal. He comes into our human history as the man, Jesus. And He is personal. He gets angry; he is grieved; Jesus weeps; He expresses His personhood. And I know that's not hard for us to grasp; it's more the Father. And then the Spirit is really misunderstood. The Spirit is a person. the Spirit is not some sort of impersonal force, but a person. The Scriptures call Him a He. It's He when they refer to the Spirit. The Spirit is personal and does personal things. The Spirit speaks and sends; this is Acts thirteen. The Spirit chooses in Acts twenty. The Spirit teaches in John fourteen. The Spirit gives in Isaiah sixty-three. The Spirit can be lied to and tested in Acts five. The Spirit can be resisted in Acts seven. The Spirit can be grieved as the Father can in Ephesians four. And the Spirit can be blasphemed in Matthew chapter twelve. And so God is distinct in His personhoods, and He's personal. He can be known; He can be loved; this is the God of the Bible. So the Trinity, it's one God, but it's one God in three distinct persons. Three distinct persons that can be known and can be loved. And so what's been fascinating to me in regards to the Trinity--in fact, as you get deeper and deeper into it and begin to ponder and consider it and study it and think on it--you begin to ask other questions and it becomes more and more beautiful, and I want to get into

8 some of those because I want you to know what this God is like. What is He like? And what is He like foundationally in His very essence? So have you ever just thought, why did God create? Have you ever wondered why did God create? What are we doing here? Why did He create? And what was happening in pre creation, like in eternity past? What was God doing? Have you ever thought of that? If you have a single person God, what is that single person God doing? What is God doing for all eternity? It sounds boring. One of the books that I read, it's got a chapter that's titled 'Single Person, God, Non smoker, Looking for Creation to Love.' I love that. What was God doing precreation? What was happening? Can you just imagine with me for a moment a single person God who is for all of eternity by Himself. What is happening? What would that God be like? Would that God be outward focused or selfish? Would that God be lonely or is He somehow complete and satisfied? What is He doing? Why did God create, then? Many of us, we think that God created because He was lonely, or He created because He needed us to worship Him, or He created because He needed us to serve Him. That's the Babylonian god, Marduk; that's not the God of the Bible. What was God like, and what was He doing pre creation? Playing Solitaire? Infinitely? Forever? What was happening? We don't have to guess; the Bible actually reveals these things to us. But if you consider the single person God, you actually end up losing a lot of what we hold so dear. We speak of God as a God of love, but if for all eternity God had no one to love, then how could in His character, at His essence actually be a God of love? Because there was a time He didn't if He's just a single person God. We speak of God as a communicator. He's always speaking, like His word created everything; and He wrote a whole Bible for us, and it's really big, and it covers thousands and thousands of years. He's always talking, but then God at His essence can't be a communicator because that meant there was a time He wasn't speaking. If He was a single person God, there was a time He didn't talk. What kind of God would that be like? What would His character be? What would He be like? Would we want to be around Him? Would we want to hang with Him? Aristotle, He wrestled with these questions, in regards especially to God's goodness. He said this, "How can God be essentially good since goodness involves being good to someone?" We speak of God being good. "God is good all the time. God is good." How is that possible if there was a time where He wasn't good? You see if you strip away the Trinity, if you have just a single person God, if you just have Allah, if you just have these other gods, then at His essence all you're left with is a God that's powerful. Why? Because He has the ability to create. That's all that we would know of that God. There was a time He didn't love, there was a time He wasn't in a relationship, there was a time that He didn't communicate or talk, there was a time that He wasn't good, there was a time He didn't pour out, there was a time He didn't enjoy; there was a

9 time that He didn't do all of those things. There was only a time that He had power and the ability to create, and then you have the question, why? Why did He create? And so what is the Triune God of the universe like pre creation? What was happening in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit before creation; and maybe if we know that, then we can answer the question, why does He create. Why are we here? Have you ever wanted to know why we're here? Let's find out. John chapter one. We get a glimpse into pre creation Trinity, pre creation God; and what that God is like. John chapter one, first three verses, "In the beginning [does that sound familiar] was the Word [notice that that's capitalized. That's a person. That s someone], 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 any thing made that was made." So you have the Word, and we find out very, very soon in a few verses that the Word is who? Jesus. Jesus. And then you have God. The Word is with God. Who is that? That's the Father. And so here you have what's happening in Genesis one. You have the Word and God and they are creating. That's what John is saying here in John chapter one; same thing happening in Genesis one--you have God and the Word, and He is creating. Now jump down to verse eighteen. What was happening right before that? "No one has ever seen God; the only God [one God, right? The only God], who is at the Father's side, he has made him known." So at the Father's side, in the Greek, this is at the Father's bosom. And it means there's this intimate, close, loving relationship that the Father has with the Son, and the Son has with the Father; and the Spirit of love is poured out between them. And before Creation that's what God was doing--perfect, harmonious, loving relationship. A beloved Son being loved by a loving Father, perfectly satisfied, in perfect relationship, joyful, without any need; the Son was at the Father's side. So you get a glimpse into what's happening here before Creation--what God was like. All of eternity, you have this God. An infinite God, who infinitely is a Father, who intimately loves the Son, with the Spirit of love between them. And so what that means is that God was never bored. God was never of need of anything. God never lacked for anything. He has always been loving; He has always been good, because He's always loved the Son. The Son has always loved the Father, and they have been good to one another. C.S. Lewis, he calls this--this picture of the pre creation God, the pre creation Trinity--the dance of God. This is the dance of God. Theologians, they'll call it the perichoresis. That's where we get our word choreography. It's this idea that the Godhead is this dance; Father, Son, and Spirit revolving around one another; loving one another in harmonious, perfect, beautiful relationship. And so I'll give you a picture. We tend to speak of some people as thinking that the world revolves around them. And that's the idea, that I'm center; I'm the central point of the

10 universe; I think that everything should revolve around me. That's static. That's not a dance. That's me standing still and expecting everyone to know me, love me, serve me, give to me, provide for me, and do what I say, right? That's humanity. All of us just standing static, nobody dancing at all; and you wonder why we have the problems that we have. God is not like that. The Father, and the Son, and the Spirit are in a continual and eternal and infinite and wonderful dance; this perfect relationship, where they're continually loving and pouring out and caring for and being generous to and deferring and glorifying and serving one another. It's this perfect relationship. That's what's happening in John one; that's what's happening in the Trinity. And C.S. Lewis, he calls it the dance of God. And it's in kind of contradiction to what we are like as humanity--not revolving around one another, not dancing at all. And so when we speak of the things of God that we do, like when we sing, 'Holy, Holy, Holy,' that's what we are referring to. When we talk about the holiness of God, we are talking about the dance of God, because we are saying that He's perfect, He lacks for nothing, He needs nothing, He is perfect in all of His ways, and He is so holy other--he's so different than what we are like. That's what we speak of when we talk about the holiness of God. We want the world to revolve around us. God doesn't do that. Karl Barth, he says this-- he speaks of the holiness of God and the beauty of God synonymously, and he says this-- The tri -unity of God is the secret of His beauty [or the secret of His holiness. Same thing for Him]. If we deny this, we at once have a God without radiance. If we deny this, we have a God without joy. If we deny this, we have a God without humor, and a God without beauty. But if we keep to this...the Father, the Son, the Spirit, that He is one God, we cannot escape the fact that apart from anything else He is also beautiful. We are talking about a perfect, harmonious, glorious, magisterial, relationship God--the Trinity. The Father always loving the Son, the Son always loving the Father, and the Spirit of love between them. Romans 5:5 says that the Father pours out His Spirit on us too by pouring Him into our hearts to show us His love for us. The Spirit is poured out continually from the Father to the Son. And so the implications of this, if this is true, are unbelievably huge. Everything that you value and hold to, and what we as people, as humanity value inherently, overflows from who God is. If this is true, if the Trinity is true, and if God has always been Trinity--Father, Son, and Spirit--that means that relationships are primary. Doesn't that just make sense deep down in the pit of your heart even when relationships have been hard--that relationships are primary. Why? Because God is a relationship. See, if you have just a single person God, you just have Allah, if you just have the Mormon god who hasn't yet fathered the spirit son, Jesus; you've got a very bored, lonely God who is not in relationship, who is only powerful.

11 Power becomes primary if you lose the Trinity. But if the Trinity is primary, then it's relationship that's primary, and power is just a tool to use to love the people that you love. If the Trinity is true then generosity is divine; giving is divine; it is more blessed to give than to receive, why? Because the Father has always given the Son the Spirit. Yeah, that makes sense. If the Trinity is true, if God is Trinity, then, of course, diversity and unity should be valued in our relationships. God is distinct and yet one. He is different and yet one. He's diversity; He's unity, and so we should have those types of relationships as well. If God is Trinity, then it makes sense that submission and sacrifice are of value that we should hold to, why? Because the Son always does the will of the Father, and the Spirit always does the will of the Father and the Son, and yet they are all equal. And so even when we serve and even when we submit, it doesn't mean that we're losing our equality, it just means we are being more godlike. All the things that we inherently value didn't just poof up into the air, and they weren't created by some sort of social construct so that the races can evolve to a greater state. Those things overflowed from an eternal, infinite God, who is in relationship, who does love, who does communicate, who has submission and sacrifice within Himself, who enjoys Himself, who is beautiful. These things flow from who God is. See, you find yourselves in the middle of a much bigger story, and to understand your place in that story, and what you are meant to do in that story, and your purpose, and how you should act and respond to the world around you, you have to understand the greater story; but to understand the greater story, you got to know where it starts. It starts with that God--the Triune God of the universe. And so what was God doing pre creation? He was a loving Father pouring out to the beloved Son. So, then why did He create? Out of the overflow of His love for the Son, He creates that we might share in His beauty. But here's the thing. We have rejected this God. Creation happened that we might share in His glory and His beauty, and we rejected it. You and I have rejected to share in this God; instead, we have turned inward. We speak of sin often as selfishness, self reliant, self dependent, self glory, because it is the essence of what sin is and the opposite of what God is. God has always been an outward nature God; He's always been a pouring out God; the Trinity has always been about the other, and you and I have rejected Him, and we turned inward. So it leads us back to our first question, what then is salvation? We've rejected this God, what then is salvation? Because if you start with Genesis three in sin, then salvation is just that we are lawbreakers, and we have been invited back in as law abiding citizens. If you start in Genesis two in man, then salvation is that we need to evolve further, or we need to go back to some former glory; and so we need to better ourselves; we need to read some self help books and watch Oprah, and God can maybe help us out. If we start with Genesis one in Creation, then salvation is we need to be a part of Creation going back to shalom, going back to peace, going

12 back to this sort of utopia; or we need to be a part of the evolutionary process that's sending it forward into a greater and greater paradise. But if we started with the Triune God of the universe, what then is salvation, there? What is salvation if the Trinity is true, and we start with God? So turn to John chapter seventeen. I want to close there, and I want to show you what salvation is when we start with the Trinity. John Chapter seventeen. We are going to start in the first couple of verses, and then we'll skip to the end. And that will pop up on the screen, so you don't need to turn there if you don't want. But I do want to show you something. If we start with the Triune God, what then is salvation? Verse one, "When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, 'Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life [this is salvation], that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." And so salvation, eternal life, Jesus says, is that we would know the Father and know the Son. It says here that the Father sent the Son, why? To make Him known. To make Him known. And throughout the gospel of John, you have Jesus saying things like, "I and the Father are one. No one can come to the Father except through me." See, throughout the Gospels you have Jesus saying, I'm making the Father known. So, the Father sends the Son that we might know the Son; the Son is there that we might know the Father; and just before this in chapter sixteen, Jesus says, I'm sending the Spirit that you might know me, and that you might know me more. And so all God is doing in salvation is making Himself known. He wants you to know His love for you, and then you to love Him in return; and that you would know Him, and He would know you. This is what salvation is. For all of Creation, for all of re creation, you have God making Himself known and inviting us back in to this dance of God. So what then is salvation? It's the Father delighting in the Son, and so delighting in the Son that He wants to share His beauty with us. And it's the Son making known to us the Father's love for us, and it's the Spirit showing us the Son and letting us experience the Father's love. It's unbelievable. See, if salvation is firstly that we have broken some moral code, that we have somehow strayed from God's law, then we are just invited back in as law abiding citizens. And that's nice, but if you're pulled over by a police officer for speeding, and he says I'm just going to let you off the hook, you might be grateful, but you're not going to love him. God didn't let you off the hook; that's not what's primarily happening in salvation. It is not that we strayed from some moral law, it's that we strayed from Him. Salvation is not that you been invited back in as law abiding citizens, it's firstly and primarily that you're invited back in as His beloved children.

13 Do you understand the difference when you start the story with God, where the Bible starts it? It's this unbelievable truth. If you wonder why you are having a hard time worshiping and rejoicing in who God is and what Christianity means, maybe it's because you have started the story wrong; and you're just grateful for getting off of some moral code that you didn't really understand or know or think you could follow. And yet the whole time, He's just been inviting you back into a relationship with Him; and that's what's glorious. So, I want you to see one more thing at the end of John seventeen. It'll pop up on the screen. I want you to see the fullness of this. Jesus is still praying. The disciples are around, and they hear Him; and Jesus says this in verse twenty-four, "Father, I desire that they also [that's you and I], whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world [when did the Father love the Son? Before creation existed.] O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these [you and I] know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known [here it is], that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." So you're telling me that you have this eternal and infinite loving Father, who has eternally and infinitely and perfectly loved the beloved Son for all of eternity; out of the overflow of that love, everything exists, the universe is here; we were created then to share in that? And Jesus says, salvation is that same love that you love me with, Father, you love them with now. How much does the Father love you? Infinitely and eternally, He has loved you. Ephesians one, "In love, he predestined you for adoption." If you don't have the Trinity, you don't have adoption. If you don't have the Trinity, you don't have a loving God. If you don't have the Trinity, you don't have the Son who makes that God known. Jesus is saying, Father, you love them and I am in them, and now they know you as I do. In and I never know how to pronounce this guys name, so I'm just going to go with it--friedrich Nietzsche--I'm going to go with that one. Judge me if you can. That's okay--he announced famously, what? God is dead. What he meant by that is faith in God is not necessary, we don't need Him anymore. We don't need to have the social construct of the idea of a deity; we don't need God; we don't need to have this idea of some sort of being like the Creator; we don't need God; we don't need faith in God anymore. We're passed that. God is dead. And you know it's precisely in the death of God, in the cross of Christ where faith actually begins. It's at the cross of Christ where the depths of the Triune God are made known. It's in the death of God, the cross of Christ where the fullness of the glory of the beloved Son is seen. All that the Father has wanted in Creation and in recreation or salvation is seen at the cross. At the cross, Jesus puts the death all these false ideas of God and what He is like and

14 reveals Him to be a loving Father, a beloved Son, and a Spirit of love between them. This is the cross of Christ. As the literal crux of the revelation of who God is. Have you ever just wondered what the cross has to do with some of these things? Yes, it saves. Yes, it pays the penalty for your sin. It does all of those things, but even more, it's inviting you back in to this God that's revealed and most revealed on the cross. See, we rejected this glorious and beautiful Triune God. And in our rejection, it just stirred the depths of His love all the more, and we see that most fully in the cross. So my invitation to you, is that we would know and worship that God. If you don't know that God, I want you to know that God. Start with Jesus. He reveals that the Father is a loving Father, and He sends the Spirit that you might know Him. And if you do know Him, I want you to worship the Father, praise the Son, glory in the Spirit, and be overwhelmed by the reality of His salvation. The Father initiated it, the Son accomplished it, and the Spirit applied it to your heart. Let me pray. Father, thank you for your glory and your grace. We ask, Lord, that you would move in our hearts and in our beings these truths that are foundational, that are deep and may be difficult at times, yet at the same time there is something in us that resonates with them; and they send our hearts soaring. That if this is true, if this is what God is like, that we would just want to know more and more and more of you. And so through your Spirit, would you give us an understanding. That as you Word is opened, as your Word has been taught, that now your spirit would apply it to our heart. Give us an understanding. Would we be convicted that we've rejected you? And not just that we have rejected some cosmic policeman, but this beautiful God that we have rejected. Would we glory in your salvation of us, then? Would it make sense then to sing and to worship and to rejoice? Would you help us with the deep things of God that work down deep into our bones as a foundation, as concrete for our faith? Would the truth of what the Trinity is like overflow into our life? Would relationships be primary? Would we love with a Biblical love, a God love--pouring out in sacrifice and giving? Would we not live selfishly, but outwardly? And would we do so in the power of your Spirit whom you've given? And so we pray that some here would meet Jesus for the first time, revealing to them the Father's love and the power of the Spirit. And would some here, who have not had their hearts awaken to a deep and beautiful Gospel-- this great and wonderful salvation that flows from this great and glorious God--would our hearts be awakened to these truths? Would you help us? We pray these things in your name, Amen The Paradox Church

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