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In part one of The Only Way to Worship, we looked at the scriptural instruction to worship in spirit and in truth.  This week we will explore in the “truth” part of this equation.  The Trinity is a theological term that is used to best describe the eternal state in which God exists.  The Trinity is comprised f God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, God three in one.  The trinity is not something I can come near wrapping my head around, much less put on one sheet of paper.  The existence of God goes far beyond our understanding, but that doesn’t mean we can’t at the same time know God.

At the age of twenty, Charles Spurgeon said, “The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls Father.”  This is the aim we take at a brief look at the Trinity.

Wayne Grudem says, “We can understand some of truth of the Trinity by summarizing the teaching of scripture in three statements: God is three persons. Each person is fully God. There is one God.”  We learn from early on in the scripture that God exists in a plural, but single union.  Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”.” When we worship in a biblically acceptable way, our worship must be Trinitarian. We worship the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit.  Let’s take a closer look at how this works in a practical way as we worship.  

We worship the Father.  God is the sole object of Christian worship.  If worship is to be true at all, it’s object must be the sovereign God of the Bible.  All other worship is misdirected.  There is none as worthy as God.  He is the uncreated one - all other things are created.  The modern day interpretations of God fail to be accurate when they are built upon outside of scripture.  The sad realization of this is that many people “worship” a god they themselves have created.  In the scriptures, we find God the Father is shown as the one who spoke the words of creation into being (Hebrews 1:2, John 1:3), God the Father is the one who sent Jesus to mankind (Galatians 4:4, John 3:16). God the Father is also the originator of foreknowledge and election (1 Pet 1:2). 

God the Father alone is the one worthy of worship.  Psalm 145:3 says, “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.”  The God we worship is the God of the Bible, God the Father, who is to be feared and obeyed.  

We worship through the Son.  This means that it is through Jesus that we worship God the Father.  1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”  Jesus’ role in worship today is to act as our sole mediator in bringing our worship to God.  

Without Jesus functioning as our mediator, we have no covering to approach God with worship.  Ephesians 3:12 remind us that “we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.”  God does welcome us, but only through the Son.  Apart from the Son, we are denied all access to a holy and righteous God.

We worship by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is often times the overlooked person of the Trinity in the evangelical world.  However, the Holy Spirit is a central person of the Godhead.  In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he wrote,“ we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3)

In his book Worship Matters, Bob Kauflin writes, “But some Christians have so minimized the Spirit’s role in worship that he’s functionally irrelevant.  Like a person’s appendix - it’s there, but we’re not sure why.”  The Holy Spirit is God in us, and is what empowers our worship and gives is heart.  God requires we worship him with both our head and our heart.  

It is important to us as worship leaders to understand the Trinity.  We need to be learning and growing to cultivate a biblical and grounded view of what biblical worship is, and how it works.  If we are to lead our churches in worship, we must first be worshipers who walk with an awareness of who God is and how God operates.  As we continue to grow in our knowledge of God, my prayer is that our love for Jesus, his kingdom, and the gospel will flourish.

 

Reflections:

What has your previous church background taught you about the Trinity?

Was anything overlooked?

Why is it important to have an understanding of how God has revealed himself to us?

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