1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:13,560 Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, 2 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn 3 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 1: more about God and his will for our lives. I'm 4 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:24,119 Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one 5 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse. Today's 6 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 1: verses found in John fifteen, Verse twenty six. When the 7 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:46,680 Speaker 1: advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, 8 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: the spirit of truth, who goes out from the Father, 9 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:54,120 Speaker 1: he will testify about me. I have someone in my 10 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: church who comes from a different faith background, new to 11 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 1: the church. She has a lot of gold questions. The 12 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: other day she hit me with a doozy. A friend 13 00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:09,120 Speaker 1: still in this previous religion sent her an email stating 14 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:13,560 Speaker 1: the quote fact that God is not a trinity. The 15 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 1: email included several Bible passages designed to prove this point. 16 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:22,919 Speaker 1: Is this true? She asked, how do we make sense 17 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: of the Holy Trinity? First, let's do away with the 18 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:31,680 Speaker 1: examples of the four leaf clover, the states of water, 19 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: the roles of parent, sibling, and child. All of these 20 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,639 Speaker 1: examples break down and they don't adequately capture the truth 21 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:43,959 Speaker 1: of who God is. And it's important to recognize that 22 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 1: the doctrine of the Trinity, as revealed in scripture was 23 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: never intended to be a divine theology. Lesson, the Trinity 24 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: emerged as a way to describe the Christian experience. So 25 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:01,480 Speaker 1: let's start with the Holy Spirit. Even in the Old Testament, 26 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: there are countless scriptures referring to God's Spirit, and God's 27 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:10,799 Speaker 1: Spirit is always indistinguishable from God's own identity. So when 28 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: God says in Joel that God would pour out my 29 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:17,399 Speaker 1: spirit on all flesh, no one thought that this meant 30 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:21,560 Speaker 1: that God ceased to exist as God the Father. God 31 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:26,000 Speaker 1: and God's Spirit seemed to coexist in some unique and 32 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:31,160 Speaker 1: mystical way. This is a biblical reality, and Jesus is 33 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 1: clear that the Holy Spirit, said by the Father as 34 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:39,440 Speaker 1: God's own spirit, would come upon the disciples and testify 35 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:45,320 Speaker 1: about him. The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus as sovereign, 36 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:49,960 Speaker 1: as Lord and as God. Now this is what the 37 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: disciples experienced at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came upon them 38 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:58,000 Speaker 1: and remained with them, leading them and guiding them. The 39 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:02,680 Speaker 1: Holy Spirit was a sustain power amidst the intricacy of 40 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: their daily lives. And when this happened, none of the 41 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:11,120 Speaker 1: disciples thought that this experience of the Spirit was anything 42 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:15,360 Speaker 1: less than the experience of God's fullness poured out in 43 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 1: their lives. The Holy Spirit was God's spirit, God's presence 44 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: pulsating within them. But the more the disciples felt empowered 45 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:31,000 Speaker 1: by the Holy Spirit, the more they talked about Jesus Again. 46 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:33,680 Speaker 1: Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will testify about me. 47 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: Paul writes in First Corinthians that no one can claim 48 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: Jesus's lord except by the Holy Spirit. The cry of 49 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:46,560 Speaker 1: the Christian from the very start wasn't just Jesus is 50 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: a great teacher, or wasn't this Jesus guy amazing, or 51 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: that Jesus is some lesser divine being. Now the cry 52 00:03:55,560 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: of the Christian was always that Jesus is Lord. They 53 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: worshiped Jesus as the very incarnation of God's fullness. They 54 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: prayed to Jesus. They called people to believe in Jesus, 55 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:14,000 Speaker 1: to place their faith in him, because they were convinced 56 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:16,839 Speaker 1: that there was no other name under heaven by which 57 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:23,599 Speaker 1: salvation came. Jesus was understood to be God, God from God, 58 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:28,040 Speaker 1: Light from light, very God from very God. As a 59 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: Nicene creed written in three twenty five says, and so 60 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:36,800 Speaker 1: the early Christian community found themselves needing to articulate this 61 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 1: strange dynamic. Through the presence of God's Holy Spirit. They 62 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,600 Speaker 1: felt enfolded by God the Father Almighty. But the more 63 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:49,040 Speaker 1: they worshiped God Almighty, the more they saw Jesus as 64 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,920 Speaker 1: the incarnate presence of that God alive in them through 65 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:58,160 Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. So what emerged was the language of 66 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 1: the Trinity. It emerged. It was not created, and it 67 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:05,200 Speaker 1: was not made up. It emerged out of a spirit 68 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: inspired and prayer led reflection. On the scriptures, the Holy 69 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:13,240 Speaker 1: Trinity is revealed in passages like Psalm one hundred and 70 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:16,800 Speaker 1: ten the Lord said to my Lord, or in Geneses 71 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:20,480 Speaker 1: six sixteen, where the Angel of the Lord is identified 72 00:05:20,520 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: as God's own presence. It's rooted in statements from Jesus 73 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: such as I and the Father are one, or if 74 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:30,760 Speaker 1: you have seen me, feel you have seen the Father, 75 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:35,839 Speaker 1: or before Abraham was I am. It's drawn out of 76 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: Thomas saying to the risen Jesus, my Lord and my God. 77 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: The Bible makes clear the God the Father is the 78 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: one and only God, maker of heaven and earth. But 79 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:51,799 Speaker 1: the Bible also makes clear that Jesus alone is God 80 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:56,680 Speaker 1: worshiped and adored. Jesus claimed this of himself, and the 81 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:59,440 Speaker 1: Bible also makes clear that the Holy Spirit is nothing 82 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:03,599 Speaker 1: less than the presence of God in us, and we 83 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 1: will always be left scratching our heads when it comes 84 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:08,800 Speaker 1: to the Trinity because it describes a reality beyond us. 85 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:12,640 Speaker 1: But if we want a deeper experience of God in 86 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:16,719 Speaker 1: our life, here's what we can do. Ask for the 87 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:20,920 Speaker 1: guidance of the Spirit. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit 88 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:25,080 Speaker 1: will lead us into all truth. The Spirit, the advocate, 89 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:28,120 Speaker 1: the comforter, is there to lead us in our Christian 90 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:32,279 Speaker 1: life and help us peace together God's presence in our lives. 91 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:35,839 Speaker 1: And when we open ourselves to the witness of the 92 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, what we will find that we will have 93 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:44,479 Speaker 1: a deeper faith in Jesus and in grasping Jesus, Glorify 94 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:47,920 Speaker 1: God Almighty.