Sermon - Trinity 2019 - John 3:1-17

Do all of the religions in the world believe in the same God? Many today would say yes. It’s a common and popular belief today that all religions lead to the same goal, as if there are many paths which lead to the same destination of heaven. Likewise, there are many who believe that there is but one god who goes by many names, meaning that all religions worship the same god.

Among Christians lately here in America a phrase has been bandied about which tries to equate different religions with one another. It’s a dangerous and misleading phrase that will lead to people falling away from the faith. That phrase? Judeo-Christian. It’s a phrase which piles Judaism, Mohadism, and Christianity into one big lump. Why? What’s the common thread between all three? Abraham! Abraham plays a role in all three, and thus, the people of these various religions are lumped together under the phrase of Judeo-Christian. 

But the fact of the matter is, the Christian faith is nothing like the faith of the Jews or the Mohamdans. Truth be told, Christianity is nothing like any other religion in the world because there is only one true true God, the Triune God, who alone saves. All other religions worship nonexistent gods, god’s which have been made up and do not exist. 

This faith in the Triune God is the faith of the Christian church as we confessed in the Athanasian Creed. Faith in false gods does not save but instead condemn to death eternally. This we confessed in the Creed today: “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally. And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.”

There is but one true God, there is but one path to heaven, there is but one Savior of the World, and that one way is Jesus as He Himself declares: “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” 

The Triune God is the only God. In this Trinity, “The Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is another. But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one.” All three of them are uncreated, infinite, and eternal. Thus, all of the heretical sects that have sprung off of Christianity are also false and do not lead to life eternal. For instance, both Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot confess the Athanasian Creed because they don’t believe that the Son is uncreated, infinite, and eternal. Oneness Pentecostals cannot confess the Athanasian Creed because they don’t confess three distinct persons within the Trinity. Within those sects there is very sadly no salvation to be found, for the Creed we just confessed states quite plainly: “Whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.” 

This is a hard teaching today, I know it. We want everyone to be saved and it’s hard to fathom so many people being eternally damned. Moreover, here in America lately we’ve become much more secular, fewer and fewer people claim any religion whatsoever. Thus, for we who believe the Christian faith and are religious, it can be rather lonely at times. So it’s tempting to want to find allies and companions among other religions so that we don’t feel so alone. 

But we don’t do anyone any favors when we tell adherents of false religions that their faith will get them into heaven. First of all, it’s a lie which will keep them comfortable in their false belief and discourage them from repentance and coming to the true faith. Second of all, it’s a lie you’re telling yourself, in which you will begin to believe and trust in false gods, and belief in false gods will only lead you into eternal fire and condemnation. 

So instead of lying, we’ve been called to follow the lonely way of faith in the one true Triune God. This firm belief may not make us friends with everyone around us, it might offend people, in fact it will probably do to us what Jesus said it would: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” 

Jesus didn’t promise us popularity and an easy road, but this is the only way even if it is a lonely way. Even though it may be lonely it doesn’t mean that we’re alone. Instead, through this faith we are united with the Triune God. We are united with the “Holy, holy, holy [who] is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” This holy and Triune God comes to us, a people of unclean lips, and He gives to us His holiness. He takes a burning coal from the altar, he takes the body and blood of our sacrificial Lamb, Christ Jesus, and He touches it to our mouths, it enters into our lips, and He declares: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” This lonely way following our Triune God saves us because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is with us.

This way may be lonely, but we’re not alone. Indeed, on this way we’ve been reborn, given a new birth from above! Our first fleshly birth from our mothers certainly gave us hearts of flesh, that birth made us fit in here on earth. But now dear Christians we’ve been born again from above, we’ve been of water and the Spirit, we’ve been born again in the waters of Baptism when the Triune name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was placed upon us. 

This birth gave us a new birth of the Spirit, and set us apart from this world, making us strangers here. But our rebirth by baptism has also given us a new home and a new family in heaven, where we are counted together with that vast multitude which no one can number. The way on earth may be lonely, but we’re definitely not alone. 

Since Jesus has called us to follow the lonely way, now more than ever, we Christians need each other. Because it’s such a lonely path, and the world around us hates us, we need to find mutual consolation among one another. Those who aren’t with us today need to be encouraged to gather here with other Christians. We need them and they need us. We’ve got to stop thinking we can do it alone, because we can’t. All by ourselves we’re easy pickings for Satan who prowls about like a lion, but together we’re stronger. 

We need to keep singing good old Lutheran hymns because these sung confessions unite us with Christians for the past 1000 years. We need to keep confessing ancient Christian creeds because these confessions of faith unite us with other Christians of the past 1500 years. We need to keep chanting the ancient liturgy of the christian church because these chants and responses unite us with Christians of the past 2000 and 5000 years. Outside of church we must keep praying and reading and singing, eating and laughing and crying, joining together because the way of the Triune God is lonely, but we’re not alone.

We need to keep coming together to confess the truth of the Triune God not for ourselves only, but for the sake of the world. “For God loved the world in this manner, namely that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” We need to keep faithfully and firmly and boldly confessing our faith before the world, so that the world might believe and be saved.

It may be unpopular and it’s not politically correct to say that there’s only one way to heaven through faith in the Triune God and that all other religions condemn, but it is loving. See, the goal of all of this is not to hurt or offend people, it’s not about being right or better than others, it’s about the world being saved through the Son of Man who was lifted up on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the world. We don’t confess the Trinity because we alone want to be in heaven, but we confess the Trinity because we want everyone to believe in the true God and go to heaven with us! 

So on this Trinity Sunday be strengthened and encouraged in the true catholic faith so you may be saved. Be emboldened to compassionately confess the Trinity before your family and neighbors so that they too may be saved. There is only one true God, the Trinity, and He alone saves. This may be a lonely way, but you’re not alone as you confess with the church throughout all time your faith in Jesus, the Son of Man who was lifted up on the cross for your sins, as the way, the truth, and the life.