CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

December 28, 2008

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

PARTY TIME!

That’s right! We are going to party! We will meet at the Cruthirds on December 31 at 7 pm to welcome in the New Year. So come and join us for fun and fellowship. Shalania will have the details or you can call George or Yevette.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

We have been praying for about half a year now about God’s will for our congregation. If anyone has any insights that you would like to express, please let us know.

Our nation, military and leaders Various friends, relatives and co-workers

SHOW US THE FATHER

“Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us’” (John 14:8).

There was much happening that evening. They had gathered to celebrate the holiday. There was talk about service, betrayal, and denials as well as a new commandment and going away. There were questions and answers and lengthy discussions. Jesus told His disciples that He was going away and that He would prepare a place for them, that He would return and that they knew the way. What was the way? Jesus answered that He was the way to the Father, whom they have now seen.

Since John draws heavily on Moses, Philip’s question should not surprise us. Moses had a desire to see God in Exodus 34. It is Jesus’ answer that is surprising. He said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Sometimes I think we have been looking for God in all the wrong places. To see and understand who God is, we need to look at Jesus. Through Him we see the gracious, compassionate and loving Father, just as God spoke to Moses (see Exodus 34:6-7). The Gospels are more than biography and history, more than stories of a Savior, they show us God.

The Hebrew writer caught this when he said that Jesus was the exact representation of God (Hebrews 1:1-3). Jesus often stated in His parables that the kingdom of heaven or God was like… and then went on to show us various aspects of God’s seeking people. The miracles certainly proved that Jesus had authority to say the things He said but there was more to them. He also was giving us a glimpse into the future where all would be made right by God and we would return to God’s intended purpose and fellowship as seen in the Garden of Eden. His sermons often reflected the idea of how to radically live in this world, just as Israel was to be a holy nation set apart from the pagan cultures of its day. We are to love our enemies, pray for those who persecuted us physically and verbally, to be righteous and to be merciful. We learn to be forgiving and to speak in ways that are helpful.

The life of Jesus shows us who God is. There is another aspect to this as well, one to which we have not paid much attention. It centers on the doctrine of the Trinity (1) or the Trinitarian view of God and life. Outside critics have claimed that we have little Trinitarian theology, and in part they are right. Churches of Christ have not been known to advocate the Trinity. Part of the problems stems from the word itself. It is not found in scripture, and like the word atonement, it is a concept that we attempt to define. The Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, is a difficult concept, not easily understood nor explained. Another problem has been our view of the Holy Spirit. For any number of reasons, we have down played the role of the Spirit in our lives, both individually and congregationally. We have defined the work of the Spirit in a narrow way which has led to a deistic view of God; that is, He is out there but not involved in our lives accept through His word. Some would say that we have elevated the word to be equal to God, or bibliolatry.

The concept of God is introduced early in scripture. We see the Spirit of God active in creation (Genesis 1:2). Then we have a recorded conversation: “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness…” (1:26, emphasis added). It would take Jesus to reveal more of this idea though, having the full story, we can look back and see how God works among Himself. What is the image and likeness of God? We can see a view of this in Genesis two. After Adam had named all the creatures, he did not find one suitable for himself. God said that it was not good for man to be alone. Why was that? We find in the Trinitarian view that there is interaction within the Godhead or Trinity. There is fellowship and communion. If we are made in His image, we are made to be in fellowship with God and with one another. God created woman, the man and the woman shall cleave to one another and become one, hence our understanding of marriage.

For Israel to be a holy nation set apart from the pagan cultures surrounding it, the concept of community was developed (see Exodus 19). Israel was to be the light of God to the world. It was to maintain its distinction as a holy people. History shows that it failed.

That brings us to Jesus. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1, 14). Jesus is introduced as Immanuel, God with us, coming into our world. Paul explains it in Philippians 2:6-8 where Jesus emptied Himself and became a man, lived and died, and was resurrected (2). For us, this introduces the second Being of the Trinity. John’s Gospel emphasizes the Deity of Jesus, so when Jesus told Philip that when they see Jesus, they see the Father, He is making the claim of God in the flesh.

There are any number of thoughts and questions that can arise from this. The Holy God came into His sin filled creation to redeem it. How could He do such? Again, going back to Moses, we see God coming to Mt. Sinai and meeting with Israel. We see Moses, Aaron and seventy plus others eating in the presence of God, where the text says twice that they “saw” God (Exodus 24). It would be God’s effort through Jesus to bring about redemptive fellowship, eventually leading us back to Eden and the walking with God in the cool of the day.

Jesus also introduces us more fully to the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. He is not an it, an unfortunate way of identify the Spirit of God. In John 14:26; 15:26-27; 16:12-15, Jesus introduces the Spirit as One who comes to continue, to complete, to become a Comforter for us. Paul would expand on this in a number of texts. We are to be controlled by the Spirit (Romans 8:9-11). The Spirit intercedes for us (8:26-27). We are led by the Spirit (Galatians 5:18-25). The Spirit is a guarantee of our inheritance, or to say it another way, our future redemptive fellowship (Ephesians 1:14). We can quench and grieve the Spirit but we also can pray in and be filled with the Spirit of God.

We in churches of Christ have often looked at the Holy Spirit as One who did miracles and inspired the word, both true, but when His work was done, returned to heaven and left us alone with just the word, or scripture. This is a mistaken view. God has not left us alone. Reading through scripture, one can see that God was often with His people, especially when they trusted in Him. Fearful that we might end up speaking in tongues and advocating miracles through the Spirit, or creating new scripture, we have gone to the other extreme and stated that in essence, God has given us a mind to reason with, and we can make it on our own. Whether miracles have ceased or not or the same for speaking in tongues (3), my point is that God is still involved in our lives. However He does it is His business; I’m just thankful that He is!

One aspect we need to see in this Trinitarian view is that of fellowship. If we are created in His image, then fellowship becomes an important aspect of life. That is why we have the church or assembly. We have fellowship and its importance is seen throughout scripture, whether as the nation of Israel or the family of God today.

There are certainly other aspects to the Trinitarian theology that need to be explored. Let me just illustrate the idea of the Trinity with an illustration, as far as it goes. Picture a triangle. Each side is equal and represents one Person of the Godhead. God the Father on one side, God the Son on another, and God the Holy Spirit on the third. Inside is the unity or essence of God. This is the idea of the Trinity. Illustrations can only go so far but there are any number that can be used, such as an egg or water, but I think, at least in my mind, that the triangle works best, at least for now.

Trinitarian theology is the development of the likeness or image of God in us, His creation made to be like Him in unity, in fellowship, and in relationship. Much more could be said but keep this in mind: God has not left us alone. We have a Comforter who guides us in life if only we will acknowledge Him.

George B. Mearns

(1) We can also call this the Godhead or Deity, God in three Persons.

(2) In a future article, Lord willing, we will look at this text and its meaning.

(3) I think that the tongues mentioned in the New Testament are languages. However it could be that when one speaks in tongues to God, that it is a language between God and the one speaking (1 Corinthians 14). We might have reacted to those who advocate what is called ecstatic utterances to reject this idea, but then again, we might not understand this particular aspect either.