Trinity Sunday is one of the very few times in the Christian calendar that a Sunday is named for a doctrine, rather than for a biblical story (such as Easter, Pentecost, Christmas and the like).
The passages are chosen by the Revised Common Lectionary team to encourage us to reflect on the doctrine of the Trinity, as a doctrine that is central to our faith.

Last week, we looked at the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the disciples on that first Pentecost day.
They were baptised in the Spirit and then went out into the world as new men and women, empowered by the Spirit to spread the Gospel of Jesus and this can also be our mission if we accept Christ’s call and renounce our sinful ways.

In this reflection, we're going to delve a bit deeper into the familiar passage we read from John ch. 3 vs. 1 – 17, where we find Jesus being visited by Nicodemus, at night, under the light of a candle. 
Now Nicodemus was a respected member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of Jerusalem and he came to Jesus under cover of night to ask questions of Jesus that he would not have asked in the presence of others.

In whispered tones, Nicodemus asks: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, apart from the presence of God." 
With these few words, a door is opened and Jesus steps through.  "You must be born from above," Jesus says.
But Nicodemus misunderstands him because the Hebrew word for “from above” can be taken two ways.
Nicodemus thinks Jesus has said, "You must be born again", but Jesus was actually meaning: “you need to be born on two levels - water and spirit.  You must be born from above!”

Then we get to that very well-known passage John 3:16,
"For God so loved the world" - the Gospel in a nutshell. 

But how many of us remember the verse that comes just before it, where it says:  "No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man (i.e. Jesus)." 
And in Romans 8, where Paul reminds us that we can’t live by the flesh but must be led by the Spirit of God.
Or indeed the final words in John 3:17:
"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him"?

These verses tell us that God sent Jesus to earth, not to condemn us for all that we’ve done wrong, but to save us from those very wrongdoings, by giving up his mortal life on the cross, that our sins could be forgiven.
And that it is the Spirit of God who will guide us on our journey through life.

So, whether we have the advanced cognitive capacity to totally understand the reason that God decided that it would be best to appear to us in 3 distinct forms, we’re sure that he’s always with us and that he loves us forever.

Perhaps you've been in a church community all of your life and all this sounds like “I know all that”. 
Or maybe you're a person who ticks "none", in the census when asked about your religious affiliation.
Or you could be a seeker, like Nicodemus, just checking out Jesus under the cover of night. 

Whoever you are, I implore you to remember this truth:
Jesus didn’t come to condemn you, but to save you and give you a new life in him.
​So lift up your eyes, lift up your hearts and love the God who comes to us in three forms:Father, Son and Spirit. 

Our story has come down to this: 
"For God so loved the world" and because of that, we can live new lives in Christ.

Blessings

Pastor Rick

How do you think you’d react if you attended a huge multi-cultural church meeting where you heard a mighty rushing wind and saw tongues of fire descend only to land on each of the heads of a bunch of uneducated people, who weren’t even from your city?
And after all this, these people got up started speaking knowledgably and logically about God – and in languages that all the people, from at least 15 different language groups, could understand in their native tongue? 

Well, I don’t know about you, but I think it’d freak me out if I was there. 

When this happened to the disciples of Jesus and about 120 of the believers, it would have been quite a sight. 

That’s what happened at the Harvest Festival (Shavuot), where a number of devout Jews were commemorating the giving, by God, of the 10 Commandments to Moses at Mt Sinai. 
It had occurred 50 days after their exodus from Egypt. 

That same festival is known by Christians today as Pentecost, which literally comes from the Greek for the 50th day and it falls on the 50th day after the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.
In some countries it is also known as Whitsun, or Whitsunday. 

This day is often seen as the “day the church began”, because it’s the first occurrence of baptism by the Holy Spirit and therefore indicates the inauguration of the Christian church.
Interestingly, the reading from Acts 2 doesn’t actually state that a Spirit baptism took place at Pentecost.
It just says that they were “filled” with the Holy Spirit. 
However, Acts 1:5 gives us the anticipation that it will occur (“for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit”) and later in Acts 11:15-16 it refers back to it as having occurred on that day. 

​The Christian church, therefore, came into existence on that day and the believers were baptized into one body – that which we now call “the church”. 

We join the story where the disciples now seem to have re-found their courage and are now speaking boldly.
Only 7 weeks earlier, they’d scattered and were in hiding, fearful for their lives.
Even after Jesus had re-appeared to them a number of times following his resurrection, they were still reluctant to speak in public.      
It must have been a very confusing time for them.  

On the one hand, they were sad because their teacher had been killed and taken away from them and, therefore, that part of their life was over, but in another way, it must also have been a great experience and adventure.
They would have been filled with joy as they were about to take the message of the gospel to the rest of the world. 

The disciples had been with Jesus for 3 years before experiencing his death & resurrection and the 40 days of teaching and learning before his ascension, but now they seem to be on their own.
We remember that earlier, Jesus had promised that he wouldn’t leave them alone, but he would send a comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be with them forever. 

It was only after being baptised by this Spirit, that they had the courage to speak out in front of their peers. 

The report from Acts that “3,000 were added to their number” indicates that the disciples must have spoken well and what they said obviously made sense to those who heard them (in their own language).  

It must have been a mighty sight to witness - and then Peter addressed the crowd.
For the first time, he publicly preached about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 
This is the same Peter who, only 7 weeks earlier, was so scared that he had denied even knowing Jesus.
What was so different now? 
It was obviously the Holy Spirit that gave him the ability to speak so eloquently and boldly. 

He started off by defending the 11 against the accusations of drunkenness that were being made by the crowd.
He pointed out that it was only 9am and they couldn’t possible have had too much wine, as on such a festival day, they wouldn’t have broken their fast before 10am. 

Instead, he postulated that what the people were witnessing was a fulfilment of the words of prophesy, spoken by the prophet Joel, when he said that, in the last days, God would pour out his spirit on all people and that miraculous things would happen.
Of course, Joel was talking to the people of Judah, some 860 years before Peter quoted him, but the message was along the same lines:
You may have done nasty things to God’s son, Jesus, but God is still willing to forgive you and bless you - if you accept his message and are baptised. 

Peter went on to tell them about how Jesus had brought the gift of the Holy Spirit to them and that they could receive it if they repented of their sins. 

Surely this should be the basis for every evangelist’s words today.
We can only read in amazement and wonder as the writer tells us how, with the help of the Holy Spirit, even Peter, the one who ran away, was so convincing that 3,000 people believed on that day and were converted. 

While ever the disciples sat and meditated and prayed behind locked doors, they remained defeated and downcast.  
When they ventured out to share the Good News, they knew the gift of the Spirit of God in life-changing ways.   

• Is it an exciting thing we can participate in?             Certainly.  
• Are we given a peace within?                                        Absolutely - even if all around is turmoil. But it can certainly be hard to find at times, so I suggest that you read your bible every day as a way of finding that peace.  
• Does every Christian have the gift of the Spirit?      Definitely - so long as we actually follow Jesus in his mission.  
• Can we predict where the Spirit will blow us?          No way.

 
So, what can we do and how can we be as brave as the disciples, when we’re not sure if we’ve felt the Holy Spirit come upon us?
Maybe, when we’re talking to friends and acquaintances in the coming weeks, remember these words from Acts and pray that God will use even people like us to do his work in the world today. 

We may feel like we’re speaking words that our listeners may not even understand, however, with the help of the Spirit who came at Pentecost, they will hear us in their own idiom.
The worst thing would surely be for us to not speak the words in the first place. 

Maybe not all of us feel that we have the gift of evangelism, but it’s worth giving it a try.
Start with baby steps and see how it goes.
We need to remember that we’re just the planters of the seed, God will take over and use the Holy Spirit to nurture and grow them. 

But if we haven’t even planted the seed, all the watering and feeding will be of little use. 

I encourage you to think of ways that God can use you to further his Kingdom, here on earth and I pray that the Comforter will guide you along the way. 

Pastor Rick