Trinity Sunday ~ Lively Gathering Spirit

Trinity Sunday                                                                                  Highland—Meute

“Lively Gathering Spirit”

Romans 8: 12-17; John 3: 1-17

 

Pearl: God’s gathering, cultivating, uniting Spirit

Function: To move worshippers to embrace the nature of the Holy Spirit of God which continually gathers and draws people into God’s family and way.

 

Many years ago I conducted the funeral services for a family whose adult son had died. I didn’t have the privilege of knowing this son. I was only just getting to know this family. But the father told me something about his son which has stayed with me and which I have remembered off and on. He said his son, “Was a collector of people.” What he meant was that Bill, Jr. was a magnet for people and had a large and diverse collection of friends.

1. The same is true of the Lord God. God is a “collector of people.”
2. God is a lively and active Spirit gathering, cultivating, and uniting people to himself and to his way.
3. Caleb sent me a link on Friday, unfortunately reminding me of the 2012 playoff game between the Steelers and the Broncos when Tim Tebow threw a game winning touchdown to upset the Steelers and move on in the playoffs.
   1. After the game as he was heading to the post-game conference his public relations representative Patrick asked him if he knew what happened. Tebow said, “Yeah, we beat the Steelers and are going on to play the Patriots.” Patrick asked, “No, do you realize what happened?”
      1. He said, “It’s exactly three years later from the day that you wore John 3:16 under your eyes.” “Oh, that’s really cool,” Tebow replied.
      2. “No, I don’t think you realized what happened. During the game you threw for 316 yards;

• Your yards per completion were 31.6; the ratings for the game were 31.6;

31. And the time of possession was 31.6.
32. And during the game 90 million people had Googled John 3:16, and it was the number one trending thing on Facebook and Twitter.”
33. Tebow’s conclusion: “You think God can’t use you because you don’t feel qualified to be used? Now you are just underestimating God. It didn’t matter if he had one loaf and a half a fish; God could have still done the same with it.”

1. I responded to Caleb; “So you’re saying God beat the Steelers that year, eh?!”

 

As amazing as that story is, it does illustrate exactly what God is doing. God is constantly gathering, cultivating, and uniting people to himself and to each other in amazing ways.

Nicodemus was a member of the religious order in the Jewish faith during the life of Jesus known as the Pharisees.

1. They were devout, God-honoring leaders among the Jewish people. They were the keepers of the faith. They were the authorities on the law of God. They were greately respected among God’s people.
   1. As you know Jesus often clashed with them. During his ministry there were even times when some among their party wanted to kill him. In the end they carried out his unjust trial and handed him over to the Romans to carry out his execution.
2. But even throughout this checkered interaction with the Pharisees, God was cultivating Nicodemus.
   1. Nicodemus was intrigued with Jesus. He went to him in the dark of the night, under cover. He questioned Jesus and reflected with him. In this well-known interaction Jesus said the often remembered expression that “you must be born again” to enter into God’s kingdom. This must have amazed Nicodemus and likely kept working on him.
   2. Jesus also said, “The wind blows where it will and you hear the sound of it but you know not where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with the Spirit of God.”
      1. We deduce from this that God’s Spirit is alive and well, active and very creative.
      2. When you put it together with what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8, you see that this active Spirit of God is busy redeeming and cultivating the souls and the creatures of his creating as an ongoing program.
   3. Nicodemus was the one Pharisee who stood up to oppose the unjust “trial” of Jesus.
   4. Nicodemus also joined up with Joseph of Arimathea to visit the tomb of Jesus. Nicodemus was the one who toted 100 lbs. of spices and oils to care for Jesus’ body.
   5. Nicodemus was wooed by the Spirit of God and was a follower of Jesus at some level.
3. And so you can be sure that all of your life God is busy cultivating you and your neighbor and everyone you meet.

God’s Spirit is a “uniting” Spirit. God does not divide. That is the work of God’s enemy—to divide, and to try to conquer. It is easy to affirm unity but hard to maintain. Yet maintain it, you must!

God’s Spirit draws people together and to God.

During our nations terrible Civil War our people were never so divided. Thank God Abraham Lincoln was our President during that time. For as limited as the President’s power is, the President has a unique power. The power to unite and motivate. The power to move the Spirit of the people. This is a great power. Lincoln, through his tenacious spirit, his keen intellect, his inherent wisdom, his gracious humility, his deep grasp of the moment in time, and yes, his deep trust in and dependence on God, was able to navigate our nation through one of its very darkest hours, indeed, one of its costliest times in terms of lives lost.

1. When you read some of his prayers you realize how God used him to unify our nation. You realize just how skilled was this 16^th President of the United States.
2. Aware of the times he issued a proclamation for a “Day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer” on March 30, 1863 in an effort to rally and re-center Americans around God and prayer.
   1. “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continues…until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid another drawn with the sword…so still it must be said that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
   2. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nations wounds, to care for him who shall have born the battle, and for his widow and for his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations”—Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
3. Such is the uniting, cultivating, and gathering Spirit of our God.

Often people question and wonder about who will indeed be saved? The history of answers to that question are quite sketchy. A very good answer is found in the Study Catechism, Question 49:

1. Q: Will all human beings be saved?
2. A: No one will be lost who can be saved. The limits to salvation, whatever they may be, are known only to God. Three truths above all are certain. God is a holy God who is not to be trifled with. No one will be saved except by grace alone. And no judge could possibly be more gracious than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

If there ever were a “collector of persons,” it is the lively, active Spirit of God who is constantly gathering, cultivating, and uniting people to each other and to himself—the Lord God, Almighty…

• Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• Speaker, Word, and Breath of Life
• Font of Blessing, Living Water, Flowing River
• Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child, Life-Giving Womb
• Sun, Light, Burning Ray
• Lover, Beloved, and Love itself
• Rainbow of Promise, Ark of Salvation, Dove of Peace
• God who was, God who is, and God who is to come!