Like the Fellowship Above

I don’t know about you, but I love a good mystery. In fact, there has to be some sort of mystery involved in it, or I get kind of bored. I’ve read so many textbooks in my lifetime, and some of them were just arduous, where I’d only read them because it was for a grade in a class.

But I’m telling you, if there’s mystery involved, I’m hooked. When I was a kid, a family friend, one of my dad’s partners at the funeral home, gave us a book every year for Christmas. And they were really always cool books.

And one of them was called The Westing Game. I don’t know if anybody’s ever read that, but it was a mystery about a family and about an heir. I don’t know how I understood it in fourth or fifth grade whenever I got it, but I read it like three times because it was a mystery of a missing person or someone who had died.

And then when I got into middle school, I started reading Alfred Hitchcock. He had a book called The Three Investigators that were about three high schoolers that called themselves The Three Investigators, and other kids would come to them. And they’d have problems, and so they’d have to investigate and solve the mystery.

It was really cool. By the time I got to high school, I was reading Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot. Now they’ve had some movies about it, but I mean, I loved how he would solve the mysteries and work there.

When I got into college, I started reading from a guy named John Grisham. Has anybody ever read any Grisham? Oh, most of them are about attorneys because he was an attorney turned writer, and it was high action. And the worst thing about reading Grisham was I started this thing where I could not put the book down.

And I’d be up till 2 or 3 in the morning, as you can do when you’re in college, wake up the next day, and my neck would be so stiff. But it was hard to stop in those mysteries. As getting closer to being a pastor, I loved reading a, it was mysteries, and it was kind of like a Christian sci-fi with Ted Decker.

And I still love Ted Decker books. If you haven’t read Ted Decker, it’s so cool. Some of them he takes the Christian concepts, and then he puts them in a dimension or a world where those are all, instead of pictorial or metaphoric, they’re all real, and things happen like the way in this other world that baptism took place was so amazing.

I guess you don’t have to be a pastor to think it’s kind of cool. And the other guy I like reading mysteries on, I talked about before, is Lee Strobel. I found this book at Mardel in the reduced section, so I had to get it.

The Case for Miracles, I had read a bunch of cases before. The Case for Christmas, The Case for Christ, The Case for Creation, and I had not read The Case for Miracles, so this is going on vacation. I love mysteries.

Now, one of the things that is an incredible mystery, there are so many mysteries in the Bible. Like in Ephesians, Paul would just say something, and then he’d go, okay, it’s a mystery. You know, it’s hard to solve, it’s hard to put your hands around.

And one of them that we’re gonna talk about again today is the Trinity. Now, the Trinity is one thing that when, especially when I was in seminary and we had to think about this and look at the ancient church fathers and see when somebody would go off the tracks on talking about the Trinity and how that would impact everything, this is what my mind did when I read about the Trinity. I mean, it just blew my mind and that mystery.

So even though we talked about the Trinity a few weeks ago, we’re gonna talk about it again today. If you remember, when we talked about it a few weeks ago, when we started looking through 1 Corinthians 12, he gave a Trinitarian view of the Spirit and the Spirit working in us. Now, there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit.

And there are a variety of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but the same God who empowers them, Spirit, Lord, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Father. You know how that’s in there? We sang the doxology amen song a couple of weeks ago too, because the Trinity is so important, not only to our faith, but to us as being the body of Christ.

And this is a concept I just didn’t understand that well, not even too long ago. I still don’t understand it as well as I could because it’s a mystery. Now, if you feel like it, you can explode your mind as we go through this, but dig in here with me.

If you try to use the Trinity during apologetics about Christianity, somebody may say, okay, show me where it says the word Trinity in the Bible. And do you know where it is, what the verse is, what the chapter is? Oh, there’s no verse that says the word Trinity. That is a Latin concept that the early church came up with to try to describe and pull out from Scripture how God is defined.

Now, if you read my article a few weeks ago, I think I’ve been, have a slight obsession with the Trinity sometimes. I talked about how God is, reveals himself in three persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then as our theology shows that derives from Scripture, that God is, comes, reveals himself in three persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but it’s one God.

We see it all over the Bible that they are of one essence, that Jesus is the same God as the Father. And the Holy Spirit is, you know, we worship God in spirit because God is spirit. So it’s all three are God, all three are persons.

This Holy Spirit is not just an energy or a power. In the book here, in the book, the book, we see that the Holy Spirit is manifested for the church in our lives. As we have worked through the gifts and the body, now we’re gonna dig more into the body and the parts.

Will you stand as you are able? We’re just gonna look at three verses today, 12 through 14. For just as the body is one and has many members, all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ, for one spirit, for in one spirit we were all called, we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, all and all were made to drink of one spirit, for the body does not consist of one member, but of many.

The word of God. For the people of God. Amen, you may be seated.

Now, the concept that we were talking about in children’s time, I never know if we’re gonna do children’s time or not, so I just kind of pulled that story out of the sermon so we had a children’s time. It was kind of for you guys anyway. Colin was up there not wanting to say anything because the story was about him and his team.

But if you’ve ever been on a team, that team could be at work. That team could be with your family. That team could be with the church where everybody has their role and their gifts and their skills.

Like I think of it, if you think of it in basketball, there was something we used to do which I have not implemented with Colin’s age group yet. Well, if they were more experienced, we might have done something like this, but it’s called a three-man weave. And has anybody played basketball? You know what a three-man weave is? Where you have three people coming across here, one in the middle, two on each side, and you pass, and then they pass back to the middle, and you pass back and forth without dribbling.

In fact, you can do a fast break without dribbling the ball at all if your passes are crisp enough and it’s the right environment. But it’s to help us do passes and think pass first and not dribble all the time. But that only works if all of them are on the same page.

You don’t know how many teams I was on that were supposed to be good teams, but at first they weren’t that good, and eventually things just clicked. Have you ever been with a group of people and things just click, and then you work together, and everybody does their thing, and you put it all together, and it comes out so much better that the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Does that make sense? You mind if I throw some math out here at 9.30 in the morning? The whole is better than the sum of the parts.

Now, as we are getting into the conversation about the body of Christ itself, this sermon series is, we are the body. The example that Paul is leaning towards is an amazing thing. Let’s get back to the Trinity, which seems totally different than what we’ve discussed in the past, what we were just discussing about the body of Christ.

But it reminds me of, not too long ago, Colin was in his homework. It was history, and it was on Mesopotamia. And it showed that they developed a class system, and you had this hierarchy that had the king or the emperor on top, and then priests and soldiers in another tier, and then skilled laborers, and then servants and slaves, and you had this hierarchy, this class system that was set up.

And I look at that, and there are many people who look at the Trinity as a hierarchy. Who would be on top if there was a hierarchy of the Trinity? The father, and who would be in the middle? The son, and who would be on the bottom? The Holy Spirit. So, it’s in our minds because it’s natural, and some religions use this as a way to make Jesus even a non-deity, a non-factor, a non-God.

But in reality, the original, or one of the original Christian symbols for the Trinity was three circles that are interlocked, you know, like the rings on the Olympics, but there were three here. You see how they’re interlocked. The Global Methodist Church came up with this as the logo, and it’s actually a pretty cool concept.

It has the three circles representing the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, which together make up one God. The circles intersect at the center of the cross of Jesus Christ, which symbolizes deliverance from sin and fear of death. The outer part of the ring represents the globe, and the logo’s overall meaning is God sending the church into the world.

You see the difference between three rings that intersect, forming one, versus a hierarchical. Now, there is hierarchy in heaven. God is above angels.

God is above everything. God is above us. God is above creation.

There is hierarchy in heaven, but among the Trinity, it is not just that the father commands the son, and the son reports to the father, and the son commands the Holy Spirit. It is, there is God’s will. There is the father’s will, but it also talks about the spirit’s will in here, and the inner circles tell us that they all work together and move together, and if you don’t read anything else, and you wanna know more about the mystery of the Holy Spirit, because you’re really pumped about God right now, I mean, you’re just pumped.

You’re thinking, this is gonna be life-changing. Read the discourse in the book of John, starting at John 14 through 17, where Jesus talks to the disciples about the Holy Spirit coming, and how the church is supposed to work, and he talks about, in there, this discussion of the relationship of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit, and how they are one God, but three persons who interact, and move, and help us. John 15, nine says this.

As the father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. Now, think of those Trinitarian circles, those rings.

The abiding is not by command, or decree, or force. Just like God doesn’t force us to be perfect Christians. Does anybody feel forced to be a perfect Christian? Are you just a perfect Christian because God made you? What is our connection to God? Not the Holy Spirit, but what is our connection to God? Child of God.

What is the bond? What is the magnetism that holds us to God? The Holy Spirit is a person, Christ is a person. What is the magnetism? Oh, there it is. It came from the tech booth.

Love. The bond of the Holy Spirit is perfect love. And that’s what you attain to.

If you read a lot of Wesley’s sermons in the writings, it was, you know, we go on to perfection, but the one that he talked about was being perfected in love. That what we wanna do, the goal of our class meetings, the goal of our Hope Builders group, is to go on to perfection in love. With one another.

Now that love, they interact together so perfectly. Now there are some things that are theologically imperfect, not good. I don’t like where it goes in the book, The Shack, if you’ve read it.

But it talked about the relationship of the Trinity being a dance. Now if you think of the dance, it’s the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit moving and working perfectly in step together because they are connected and bound together by love. And it’s that same love that Jesus says, abide in my love.

That when we saw the rings for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and where the Trinity intersected, there is the cross of Jesus. And the cross of Jesus is the thing that happened that connects us to the Trinity, that connects us to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because Jesus died on the cross. Without that cross, how do we get into the middle of this ring of love? How does it happen? I’m sorry, but it doesn’t.

Sorry, not sorry. I didn’t make the rules. But God gave us that cross so we could be in the middle of the Trinity, in the middle of the blessing of perfect love.

How’s that sound? Now when we do that, when we do that, things are different in the church. John 17, 23, this is the great high priestly prayer of Jesus, and this is the third part of the prayer where the first part he’s talking about, he’s praying for himself and what’s gonna happen to him. The second part is for the original disciples, and the third part is for those who will come to believe.

Raise your hand if you think you are included in those who will come to believe. Raise your hand, please, please, because you are. Jesus prayed about us directly.

How awesome is that? And he said, I in them, and you in me, and they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me. I in them, and they in you, and the world may know you sent me because they love me. This is the body of Christ fellowship.

Now what’s really cool is the page I lost, was it 595, what is our last hymn? 405, blessed be the tie that binds. One of those lines in a hymn that we sing for years, and we may not think about the significance of it, but in the first verse it says, blessed be the tie that binds. How many of you love singing that part? Blessed be the tie that binds.

The Holy Spirit binds us together. Our hearts in Christian love. Oh, look at that.

Thank you, Bob. Our hearts in Christian love. So we’re bound by love in Jesus Christ because we’re at the center of the cross that is in the center of the Trinity, and then it says the fellowship of kindred minds.

Kindred is like family or like working together. The Hamathamadon that comes in Acts 2 that says we are of one accord, and that’s when the Holy Spirit poured out. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.

Above is heaven. So the fellowship of our kindred minds is like the fellowship of God, Father, Son of Holy Spirit in heaven. That close relationship.

I in them and you in me and they may become perfectly one. That the church works as one. That we don’t just agree to disagree, but we agree to follow Jesus.

We have the same goal of knowing and loving God and being at the center of the Trinity. Now in verse 12, it talks about the oneness of the church, like the oneness of the Trinity, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is the oneness of one essence.

In verse 12, it says for just as one body has many members, all the members are of the body, though many are one body. So it is with Christ, one body. There is a oneness in the body of Christ, just like there is a oneness in the Trinity of God.

When that starts breaking down, it becomes more and more difficult to be the church. Basically, when we step out of the center of the Trinity, out of the center of the cross, we move on to be like just another basketball team, which is awesome. I mean, which is cool, but it’s not as awesome as being in the center of the Trinity.

Diversity, in verse 13, says we’re all baptized in one spirit, whether you’re Jew or you’re Greek, whether you’re slave or you’re free, whether you’re born on this side of the tracks or this side of the tracks, whatever your background was, however you were raised in the church, whatever school you went to, whatever place you grew up in. We grew up in different places. We had different gifts and different skills.

There is a diversity that God pulls together, that works together in love so that we can be the body of Christ. And finally, in verse 14, we see the fellowship come through where he just repeats, for the body does not consist of one member, but of many. In the early church, Wesley had a lot of lay preachers that went out and preached, and they didn’t have time to sit in a seminary setting and ruminate on what this abstract concept of the Trinity was and think about it and dig into it and try all the different things they could say and how they could get on track.

Like one of the things I used to go by, I heard the Trinity is really cool. It’s like water. It can be ice, and then it can be melt and be water, and then it gets hotter and then it can become vapor, water vapor, so different forms.

But God is all the same form or essence, so it falls short because water can’t be all three at the same time. I mean, there are parts of it, but it’s one of those that people try that falls short. The Trinity has Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all working and moving together.

In creation, you can see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the first part of Genesis 1. In our salvation, it’s the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit working together. In our life as a church, it’s the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all working together. So Wesley said, go out there, and when you talk about the Trinity, say, we have the three-one God.

It’s like today when you use just initials for everything to call it something cool. We have the three-one God. What is it? It’s three persons, one God.

So is it many God? No, it’s one God. So it’s one person. No, it’s three Gods, one person.

Three persons, one God. One God. And so as the church, if we’re gonna have a fellowship like that above, we’re the many-one church.

Many people, diverse, unique. Different personalities, different gifts, different styles. But when we have a fellowship like above, when we’re bound together in the middle of the cross, in the middle of the Trinity, we’re the body of Christ.

And the sum, the whole is better than the sum of the parts. Our lives are better than they are by ourselves. We, as a church, are better when we’re together.

We live and we move and we act with the love of God within us, toward one another, toward a world that needs love. And we thank God for everyone’s gifts, everyone’s skills, everyone’s different backgrounds. But we thank God also that we are one as the body of Christ.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, thank you so much. Thank you for the mystery of the Trinity that takes more than a lifetime to unravel and understand and move toward you.

Thank you for the mystery of the body of Christ that is like the Trinity, that is bound together in love, that works together and moves together, that is the perfect team, seeking your perfect love together. Give us guidance, give us strength, and blessed be our tie that binds us together in love. Amen.