Trinity Sunday
Psalm 8; Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:1-15
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I.
Today is Trinity Sunday. By happy coincidence, it also happens to be Father’s Day, the Father being one of the Persons of the Trinity.
Usually, it is the preacher’s job to expound a biblical text, but today I must attempt to explain a doctrine of the Church, and one of the most difficult at that.
First, let me explain what is meant by doctrine and then, second, why the doctrine of the Trinity is so important. I shall then try to explain the Trinity itself.
Doctrine. A doctrine is a teaching, an explanation of what a passage of Scripture means. There are several examples in the Bible itself of doctrine. These we rightly call biblical doctrines.
For instance, in Luke 23:46, the evangelist writes, “Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last.” This establishes the fact of Jesus’ death, but it does not explain the significance of that death.
St. Paul turns this biblical fact into a biblical doctrine when he writes in 1 Corinthians 15:3, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.” Paul takes the biblical fact of Jesus’ death and gives it a purpose.
“Jesus died” is a biblical fact.
“Jesus died for our sins” is a biblical doctrine.
Not everything the Church teaches is found in the Bible and thus we come to the doctrine of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the Trinity was born of many controversies which took place in the first four hundred years of the Church’s history.
The doctrine became so important that it became a primary test of orthodoxy. To deny the doctrine of the Trinity was to deny being a Christian at all.
Nevertheless, the doctrine of the Trinity is not taught by the Bible. You will not find it explained in the pages of Scripture. Its force comes mainly from arguments, its authority from tradition and universal acceptance. It is, in that sense, truly a Catholic doctrine.
The doctrine is both logical and symmetrical, as the diagram in your handout shows.
This is the diagram of the triangle with God at the center, connecting the Father, Son, and Spirit, describing how they are related and not related to each other and to God.
Turn it any which way and it reads the same. Start in the middle, start at one of the points of the outer triangle and the logic is consistent. God at the center is one. The three Persons are God. Each Person is distinct from the other two.
But I must stress this again, you will not find that diagram in the pages of your Bibles. The doctrine of the Trinity is biblical, insofar as each person of the Trinity is found in the Bible and the Bible regards each Person as God, but it is not a biblical doctrine.
II.
In today’s reading from John, Jesus describes the ministry of the Holy Spirit, whom He will send after His death. The passage is also Trinitarian. Each Person of the Trinity is referenced.
Jesus is speaking to His disciples the night before He is put to death. The scene is set after the last supper. Judas has gone to betray Him.
The moment is tense. Jesus says in John 16:1-2, “I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”
Here is a biblical fact in the form of a prophecy. Jesus prophecies that His followers will soon face persecution.
His disciples are visibly upset. Jesus uses that moment to teach them about the Holy Spirit, and the reason Jesus will send Him.
Jesus says in John 16:7, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
A bit later, in John 16:13, Jesus says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”
In this precarious moment, when one of His disciples had already betrayed Him, and the rest were at risk of “falling away,” Jesus promises that He will send the Spirit of truth, a counselor to guide them.
Jesus and the Spirit are coordinated. While Jesus must depart, the Spirit comes to help the disciples continue the mission. That mission is profound.
According to John 16:8-10, it involves convincing the world of three things: the world’s sinfulness, its need for righteousness, and the fact it will soon face judgment.
This is nothing less than the proclamation of the gospel.
Every presentation of the gospel must acknowledge the fact of human sin, the absolute necessity of righteousness before God, and the certainty of the divine judgment which is about to come upon the world.
Three topics in one gospel, a Trinity, if you will, much as we say, “There are three Persons in one God.”
III.
But what of the Father? His role seems obscured in this passage, but that is far from the case.
The Father is mentioned three times in John 16:1-15.
In John 16:3, the Father exposes false worship. Jesus says, “they will do this [excommunicate you from the synagogue and kill you] because they have not known the Father, nor me.”
They will do this because they think they are honoring God. In this passage Jesus equates the Father with God.
Their sin is false worship. Not knowing the Father leads to idolatry and idolatry leads to murder: “...indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”
In John 16:10, the Father vindicates His Son. “And when [the Spirit] comes, he will convince the world… concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father.”
Remember, Jesus is put to death for blasphemy, for making Himself equal to the Father, as an example of unrighteousness.
In going to the Father, Jesus is exonerated of that accusation and sits now at the right hand of the Father. No unrighteous sinner would be granted such vindication.
Jesus is killed before He has a chance to say everything He has to say. In John 16:12 Jesus says, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”
Therefore, the Father, through the work of the Spirit, will make sure that Jesus’ message is completed.
In John 16:15 Jesus says, “All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
These three references to the Father—again that number three—show a unity of purpose between Father and Son, Son and Father, Son and Spirit, and Father and Spirit. Three divine Persons who together execute one divine purpose.
Here we need to face the incapacity of our minds to take this doctrine much further.
We have established that there are three Persons. All three are mentioned in this passage and elsewhere in the Bible. All three are clearly “on the same page” and they coordinate their activity to achieve the same goal. There is unity, but there is also distinction.
Jesus departs so that the Spirit may come, but the Spirit comes to pick up where Jesus left off. They have the same purpose, the same divine goal in mind.
The Father and the Son are as distinct as any human father and son, and yet seem to hold everything in common: “All that the Father has is mine.”
These distinctions are important because they prevent the doctrine of the Trinity from becoming abstract. Instead, these three divine Persons are the means by which real people get saved.
IV.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are united in their goal to save us, yet distinct in how they do it.
For instance, you can say that it is the Father’s will to create and redeem us, the Son’s purpose to die for us, and the Holy Spirit’s power that sanctifies us and makes us holy.
If we cannot say much more than that, then perhaps we should not try. We are dealing with a mystery, more than one in fact.
Why does one man see the light, repent, change his life, and become a Christian while someone else dies in his sins? How is it that the Son must be obedient unto death, even death on a cross, while the Spirit cannot speak on his own authority, yet all three are equal in divine majesty, dignity, authority, and power?
Perhaps it is because every story needs characters, and the three divine Persons of the Trinity allow the story of salvation to be told in a way that we can understand, and not only understand, but participate in it.
V.
How through faith in Jesus you should live now.
We participate in the story of salvation through grace.
We Christians live among idolaters, those who think they worship God but do not.
We live among those who would oppose the Church, silence her preachers, dilute her Gospel of truth, and, after all that, if they still can’t shut us up, would kill us in the name of whatever god they serve. Facing that, how do we live?
We live by grace.
Paul describes how in today’s reading from Romans.
He says in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Peace with God. That is something the world cannot give and that no sinner will ever know apart from repentance.
How easy it is to gain this peace, yet so few ever ask for it.
Paul continues in verse 2, “Through [Jesus] we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”
If you’re looking for a place to stand or even to make your last stand, there’s room at the foot of the cross.
There’s grace there too, and you will experience hope as well, once the burden of your sins is lifted from you. It’s tangible. That’s a real feeling. It’s a feeling not everyone experiences, however, because they refuse to repent and ask God to forgive them.
Finally, Paul writes, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”
This is really when the Holy Spirit earns His keep. God the Father loves us, God the Son has redeemed us, and now God the Holy Spirit pours the divine love into us to produce in us endurance, character, and hope.
Since this is Father’s Day, fathers, take this cue from God the Father. Be the principle of love in your homes.
Fathers, take the lead in identifying someone who needs hope and find ways as a family to share a simple message about God’s love, acknowledging sin, righteousness, and judgment. Place yourselves and your families under the guidance and protection of the Holy Trinity.
That is the story of the Trinity. I started out to explain a doctrine to you and ended up telling you a story, a story that still needs you to play your part.
Preached on June 15, 2025, at the First Congregational Church, Woodbury, Connecticut.
Reflection Questions:
How does understanding God as three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—deepen your sense of relationship with Him?
In what ways have you experienced the Holy Spirit’s guidance in your life, especially during times of difficulty or doubt?
How can you more intentionally live by grace in a world that often opposes the gospel message?
What role does repentance play in your ability to find “peace with God” as described in Romans 5:1?
How might the story of the Trinity inspire you to participate more fully in God’s mission to save others?
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