150517 The Godhead in Agreement

Acts 1:4-5 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; ⁵ for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

As the time approached for Jesus to depart he gave his final instructions to the disciples. Wait! But not long! In a few days the promise of the Father would come upon them. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all represented in these two verses. The Father made the promise, the Son communicated it to his disciples and the Spirit is the promise. Thus an agreement was in place to provide us with all we need to carry out our mission in this world. Let’s look at the work of Father; Son; and Holy Spirit in our redemption.

We need to remember that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existed in eternity before there was time as we know it. We should rejoice that God considered our need for salvation and actively prepared for meeting that need.

On the part of the Father.

He gave the Son. Possibly the most familiar passage of Scripture is John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

All eyes. God loved the world! Sometimes I look at the news on TV and wonder at God’s love. Then I am reminded that God created man in his own image. Every person ever born on earth still bears a mark of the image of God. Whenever we meet another human being we should, if our minds are thinking correctly, realize that such an incredibly intricate, skillful, communicative living creature could only have been created by an infinite, all -wise Creator. (Systematic Theology, p 142, Wayne Grudem.) Mankind was condemned already because of the sin of Adam and Eve. But the image of God remained and demands our attention. If God loves the world — and he does — and if he created man in his own image — and he did — we must treat all people with respect. We must make every effort to lovingly unite everyone to the God who created all of us.

In his love of the world God gave his only Son so that all who truly believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. Long before the creation of the world our God had developed a plan for our redemption. As part of that plan…

He prepared a body for the Son. Turn with me to Hebrews 10:5. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;…”

The Father gave to the Son a people specially chosen by him for salvation. He wrote the names of those people in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world. From the very beginning the Father planned to send the Son to be our representative in all things necessary to our salvation. The Son came into the world as a human like us in every way except without sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21) He did not come into the world in an adopted, fully developed, body He came into the world in a body prepared by the Father. In that preparation…

He invested everything in the Son. The apostle Paul reminds us in Colossians 2:9. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

The body prepared by the Father was specifically designed to be a habitation for the fullness of deity. That is an amazing thought! That God the Son could dwell in a human body and have everything about God resident within Him! John, the disciple, tells us that the Word became flesh and lived among us and we saw his glory and that glory was the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Since God prepared for the Son to be human and yet at the same time contain the fullness of the Godhead…

He accepts the Son as our representative. Turn with me to Hebrews 9:24. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

The need of mankind has always been for a representative to stand, on our behalf, before God. Job, in his story of pain and suffering, spoke of the need for an Arbiter to lay his hand on Job and God! (Job 9:33) And later he could say those wonderful words of faith, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,” (Job 19:25-26) The Father sent the Son to be that Arbiter! Someone who could be in every way like us except for sin!

In the process of giving his Son as our representative…

He gave all authority to the Son. Turn with me to the familiar Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18.  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Jesus assured his faithful followers that he had received from the Father “all authority”. That authority included the ability to pour out the Holy Spirit in power to apply redemption to his people. Jesus, having finished the work of redemption on the cross, was able to demonstrate his authority and his power to his disciples.

The Father gave the Son as a human who was fully man but also fully God to be our representative in redemption and to have the authority to send the Holy Spirit at the right time.

On the part of the Son.

He agreed to be born human. Turn with me to Hebrews 2:14-18. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. ¹⁶ For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

It takes my breath away to consider what these verses mean. Jesus, eternally one with the Father, was willing to come to the gloom of earth after existing in heavenly glory for eternity. He did this because he needed to redeem “the children” that the Father had given to him. In order to provide redemption he took on flesh and blood by inhabiting Mary’s womb. So that through death he could deliver us from the fear of death. Look at verses seventeen and eighteen: he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Since he suffered when tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted. Praise God! In order to do that…

He humbled himself on the cross. Turn with me to Philippians 2:5-8. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus “emptied himself” becoming like a servant in order to humble himself to the point of death. Not just death, in the sense that his heart stopped beating, but an extremely horrible form of death, death on the cross!

We have looked a number of times at the horror of the cross through the Easter season. I won’t take time here to enlarge upon what has already been said. Suffice it to say that crucifixion is among the most degrading and painful forms of execution. Added to the physical aspect is the fact that Jesus took our sins into his body in order to pay the debt we all owe. As a result of his work on the cross…

He gathered a people that the Father gave him. Turn with me to Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17:6-12. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. ⁸ For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹ I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

In his great high priestly prayer Jesus stated that he had now completed his work by showing the Father to those people that the Father gave to him. Not only those who stood around him while he was physically on the earth but also all those who would believe in him as result of their testimony. We have the assurance that he has guarded, and kept, those people that the Father gave to him. That includes us! The Lord Jesus who had no sin of his own paid our sin debt and, for all those who believe in him, he has given eternal life that cannot be taken away from them.

The Father gave the Son, and the Son agreed to become a man, bear our sin and die on the cross.

On the part of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit was, and is, involved in everything God does on our behalf. So far as his work in redemption we find that…

He overshadowed Jesus at his baptism. Turn with me to Luke 3:21.  Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

When Jesus began his ministry, by being baptized by John, the Holy Spirit showed himself as part of the process. Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and continued to rest on him. Not only did the Holy Spirit descend on him but a voice spoke from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” There, for the first time in human sight the Triune God was present in one place. The Spirit descending from above, the Father speaking from above, and the Son being honored in his obedience.

Jesus’ baptism along with the manifestation of Holy Spirit led to an interesting consequence. Usually, we think that such an act of obedience and the obvious presence of the Holy Spirit would result in a time of excitement and joy. Instead, for Jesus, the beginning of his ministry following his baptism was for him to be led by the Spirit into forty days of temptation and trial. Luke tells us specifically that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days. Forty days fasting and praying is an awesome way to begin ministry! From the time of his baptism forward the Spirit overshadowed Jesus through all of his ministry and…

He provided Jesus with power. Look down the page to Luke 4:14-15. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵ And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

The spiritual strength Jesus received upon defeating the devil in the wilderness continued with him throughout his ministry. From the time of his conception until his ascension into heaven, forty days after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit filled Jesus. Holy Spirit did not come upon him for the first time at baptism. Jesus was conceived by the Spirit and shielded from the transmission of sin from his mother Mary. She had been promised that the child formed within her would be holy. Throughout Jesus’ ministry Holy Spirit was his power. Jesus himself said that he did nothing on his own. The Father and the Spirit enabled Jesus to do everything that he did on earth.

The same Spirit that worked in Jesus’ life also is at work in us! The Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ and empowers us to serve. Anything God calls us to do the Spirit will enable us to do.

Throughout Jesus life the Holy Spirit empowered him and…

He continues Jesus’ teaching. Look with me at the promise made by Jesus found in John 14:26. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Any work, of any value, that we do on earth is done through the power of the Holy Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth, convinces us of sin and empowers us to serve.

We should rejoice in the agreement that God made to provide us with salvation. I’m so grateful that God considered what man would be and determined to save some. The amazing plan of redemption was not made in an attempt to repair the damage done in the Garden of Eden. That plan was put together by God before the foundation of the world. That plan gives Christ a special role as our mediator. He stands between us and the Father. We should rejoice that we are able to be reconciled to God. Have you repented of your sin and confessed that Jesus is Lord? This could be your day of salvation!

All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.