JOHN 1:1-5 [NLTse]
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

GENESIS 1:1-3, 6, 9, 14-15, 20, 24, 26, 31 [NLTse]
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light.” …
6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” …
9 Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” …
14 Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” …
20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” …
24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” …
26 Then God said, “Let Us make human beings in Our image, to be like Us…
31 Then God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very good!

SERMON
God begins revealing Himself to humanity from the very first words of the Bible. He reveals Himself as creator, and He reveals that He Himself had no creator. He reveals that His image is not borne by winds or seas or by grass or trees or by sea-creatures or air-creatures or land-creatures, but that human beings alone – male and female – bear His likeness. The Lord reveals about Himself that He desired to create everything good, and that everything He created was, indeed, very, very good.

The Lord also reveals Himself as a Trinity.

In our reading from Genesis this past week (that we’ve also read this morning), the Bible opens saying, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” and it goes on. But it’s important for us to know that the word for “God” here is plural, literally, “In the beginning gods created the heavens and the earth…” However, we can’t translate that sentence that way because the verb “create” is singular. That is, one God – Who is revealing Himself as being more than one Person – created the heavens and the earth. Clear as mud, right?

We see evidence of this again later in chapter 1 when this same God says, “Let Us make humankind in Our image, according to Our likeness…” (V. 26): Here, again, is the One God speaking of Himself in the plural!
How does this work? What does this mean?

We get to understand this reality that the Lord is trying to reveal about Himself to us better when we turn to the Gospel of John (which is why we read from John first). John writes, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him.” (Vv. 1-3) We find out later in John that Jesus Christ is this so-called “Word” Who was in the beginning with God and Who Himself was (and is) God and through Whom everything that’s been created was created.

And we see this in Genesis, too, because “in the beginning” we see God beginning to create the heavens and the earth, and we see the Spirit of God hovering over the formless and empty heavens and earth, and we see God speaking the Word and see the heavens and the earth take on form and become no longer empty through the Word. So, here in the first two verses of the Bible we see this One Who speaks of Himself as We: God (Whom later we are taught to call and know as “Father”), Jesus Christ (Whom John reveals to be God’s Word), and the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of God)! A tri-unity Bible scholars have called it over time: The Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And we see evidence of this elsewhere across the Bible, as well. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2). The Bible speaks of Jesus as God (Titus 2:13). And the Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:3–4). Are these just three different ways of looking at God, or ways of referring to three different roles that God plays? The answer must be no, because the Bible also indicates that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons.

For example, since the Father sent the Son into the world (John 3:16), He cannot be the same person as the Son. Likewise, after the Son returned to the Father (John 16:10), the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world (John 14:26; Acts 2:33). Therefore, the Holy Spirit must be distinct from the Father and the Son.

The baptism of Jesus is another example: We see God the Father speaking from Heaven and God the Holy Spirit descending from Heaven (in the form of a dove) as Jesus, God the Son, is coming up out of the water (Mark 1:10–11).
Open up your Bulletins to the picture shown there at the bottom of the left-hand flap. That the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons means that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Jesus is God, but He is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but He is not the Son or the Father. They are different Persons, not merely three different of looking at God.

Maybe you’ve heard people say, “If Jesus is God, then He must have prayed to Himself while He was on earth.” But the answer to this objection lies in simply applying what we have already seen. While Jesus and the Father are both God, they are different Persons. Thus, Jesus prayed to God the Father without praying to Himself. In fact, it is precisely the continuing conversations between the Father and the Son that give us the best evidence that They are, indeed, distinct Persons with distinct centers of consciousness.

Another serious error people have made is to think that the Father became the Son, Who then became the Holy Spirit. But John 1:1-3 and Genesis 1:1-2, clearly show that this cannot be true: God always has been and always will be three Persons. There was never a time when one of the Persons of the Godhead did not exist. They are all eternal.
Of course, while the three members of the Trinity are distinct, this does not mean that any is inferior to the other. And the doctrine of the Trinity does not divide God into three parts. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each fully God. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and all other qualities.

If there is one passage which most clearly brings all of this together, it is Matthew 28:19: “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” First, notice that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinguished as distinct Persons. We baptize into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Second, notice that each Person must be God because they are all placed on the same level. In fact, would Jesus have us baptize in the name of a mere creature? Surely not! Therefore each of the Persons into Whose name we are to be baptized must be God. Third, notice that although the three divine Persons are distinct, we are baptized into their one name (singular), not into their name-s (plural). The three Persons are distinct, yet only constitute one name. This can only be if the three Persons are all one God.

We experience the Trinity because the Father has sent the Son and because the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit. We participate in the Trinity as we receive eternal life from the Father in the name of the Son through the Holy Spirit.
So the Trinity is to be our pattern: We are to be like it, joining together the one and the many. The church is the new humanity being re-made in the image of God. In the church we are striving – through the Holy Spirit – to express the plurality and unity of God; to be the individual and to be the congregation without compromising either. As Paul wrote, “In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.’ (Romans 12:5)

At the end of his Gospel John records this prayer of Jesus’: “That they will all be one, just as You and I are one—as You are in Me, Father, and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe You sent Me… So they may be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that You sent Me and that You love them as much as You love Me.” (17:21-23)

God’s image in humanity has been marred by sin and death, so now God’s New Covenant people – individually and together made new in Christ – are His image in the world. The Church is to reflect the Trinity. We’re to love one another; share with one another; rejoice and mourn with one another; share our lives. We’re to make decisions with regard to the church when those decisions affect the church just as the church is to help us make our own personal decisions even when those decisions will only affect us personally.

Jesus says that when the world sees our Trinity-like life that it will know that Jesus was indeed sent by the Father to save the world. So, the challenge is this: When the world sees our life together as Evangelical Presbyterian Church, does it see a sign of God’s salvation in us? Does our life together show our neighbors, friends, families, and coworkers the tri-une reality of God?