May 31, 2026
Pastor Chris Warneke
Scripture: Genesis 1:1–2:4a; Matthew 28:16–20
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
What is our reaction and mentality on Trinity Sunday? What is our mentality and reaction to saying the whole Athanasian Creed all together?
Sometimes it seems like our mentality about the Trinity is that it just seems too complicated. And since it seems too complicated, we are kind of going to keep it at arm’s length. Maybe keep it in one part of our brain where we know we are supposed to believe this. We know that it is a central part of Christianity, but it kind of freaks us out a little bit. So we are not really going to go over there. We are not really going to touch it.
And there is one part of this mentality that is correct. That part is that the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is truly incomprehensible to our human reason. You, as a limited human, are never going to fully grasp the unlimited God. So if this mentality is coming from a place of humility, realizing that God is God Almighty and I am not, then maybe there is a shred of a good thing in that.
But I fear that sometimes this mentality leads us to just say, “Well, since the Trinity is complicated, I am just not going to think about it at all.”
With this mentality, we might think, "Does the Trinity really have any practical purpose for my life as a Christian? I'm just going to ignore the Trinity in my daily life, then maybe I will pull it out on Trinity Sunday, say the doctrine, and then safely put it away so I do not have to think about it."
Dear friends in Christ Jesus, this is not the mentality about the Trinity that we want to have.
Yes, God is almighty, all-powerful, and truly incomprehensible to our human reason. But our God clearly reveals to us that He is Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is who He is, and it is also revealed to us in what He has done for us.
The Triune God is revealed to us in Holy Scripture over and over again. And then the Triune God is revealed to us in what Christ has done for us on the cross.
So the doctrine of the Trinity is not just some vague concept that we keep on the shelf and pull out one time per year. The doctrine of the Trinity is our life. Our Triune God is the One that we love. Our Triune God is the One that we worship. Our Triune God is the One who has made us and saved us.
So that is what we need to emphasize this Trinity Sunday: that the Trinity is not just some vague concept, but the Trinity is who our God is.
And thanks be to God that our God reveals Himself to you. He reveals Himself to you in Holy Scripture. And He reveals Himself to you in His work for you. That is His work of creating you. That is His work of saving you.
We see this way back at the beginning of creation.
Like we read in our Old Testament reading, Genesis 1:1–3 says:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
So just in these first couple verses of the Bible, we see the whole Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—living and active in the work of creation.
How do we see them all?
We see the Father in His creative work and speaking. We see the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters. And we see the Son.
John gives us the answer in John chapter 1:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
And then John 1:14:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The Word is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And the Word is at creation.
“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
So there at creation is the work of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in making you, forming you, and making all things in this world.
And then zooming into the creation of man, did you catch the wording in Genesis 1?
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
Our Triune God creates us together and even uses these plural words: “Let us make man in our image.”
So you see all the way back from the beginning of the Bible to the work of creation that our Triune God is working together, living and active, to make all things, govern all things, and make you.
Our God is not done with us just with creation, but He is also dealing with us—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in His work of redemption and salvation for us.
Because in the Fall, mankind rebelled against God and fell away from God, falling into sin. This rebellion was man wanting to be God rather than letting God be God.
But then Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all working together to redeem mankind, to forgive the sins of mankind, and to bring mankind back to God.
We see this image perfectly in the baptism of Jesus in Matthew chapter 3. Jesus is being baptized in the river by John the Baptist. Then descending on Jesus is the Holy Spirit as a dove, and then the Father speaks from heaven:
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
All three—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are at work in the ministry of Jesus as Jesus comes to earth in human flesh to win our salvation.
The Father is the One who sent Him in order to save you. John 3:16–17 says:
“For God so loved the world, 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.”
The Son accomplishes His work by obeying the Father’s Law perfectly on your behalf and then dying for your sins in your place.
As St. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:24:
“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.”
And then the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son to bring you to faith—to take what Jesus did on the cross and bring it to you, to wash you with the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus, and to draw you into Jesus and draw you into the Father.
That is what Jesus says in John 16:13:
“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.”
The Holy Spirit guides you in the Word of God, which gives you faith in what Christ has done for you.
And then in John chapter 20, Jesus says to the disciples:
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.”
And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them:
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Jesus anoints His disciples with the Holy Spirit to give them peace and the forgiveness of sins so that they can declare that forgiveness to you as well.
And then we saw the work of the Holy Spirit last week on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the people of God and they proclaimed the Word and works of God to all the world.
That is always the work of the Holy Spirit: bringing the Word of God and creating and strengthening faith in the hearts of men.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all working together in order to accomplish your salvation.
The Father sends the Son. Jesus says in John 6:44:
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
Then the Son reconciles us to the Father through His blood.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:27:
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”
And then Jesus says in John 14:6:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
And then Jesus says in John 5:23:
“Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
That is crucial to understand for our lives as Christians. We cannot know the Father without the work of Jesus Christ. Anyone who would claim to go straight to the Father while skirting around Jesus and going around the cross does not actually know the Father.
No one comes to the Father except through Him.
And then it is the work of the Holy Spirit giving you faith in the Son, giving you faith in the Father, and drawing you to faith in the Holy Trinity.
Romans 10:17 says:
“Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
It is the Word of the Father, about the work of the Son, and through the power of the Holy Spirit that we are brought to faith.
All three Persons of the Trinity are at work in the gifts of the Church: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
In Baptism, we have the Word of promise from the Father. In Baptism, we are baptized into Christ and into His death and resurrection, like it says in Romans chapter 6.
And then also in our Baptism, like St. Paul says in Titus chapter 3, it is:
“the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
So truly in your Baptism, you are baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You are placed into the name of God. The Triune God is placed upon you, does His work upon you, and you dwell in Him—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—through your Baptism.
And then this is also the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Lord’s Supper as well. The body and blood of Christ, which reconcile us to the Father through the forgiveness of sins, are truly present by His Word and promise through the living and active Holy Spirit.
So you see how all three members of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—work for your creation, for your redemption, and for all the gifts that God wants to give you in His Church over and over and over again.
And then this is even evident in your life of faith as you pray each and every day.
Jesus invites you to say:
“Our Father.”
You call upon the Father—His Father and now your Father because of His redemption. You can call upon that Father as dear children ask their dear father because Christ has made you a child of God.
So you pray to the Father in the name of Jesus through the power and work of the Holy Spirit.
Our whole worship here in church is in and through the Holy Trinity as we begin each service:
“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
And it is reflected all throughout the liturgy, like we say in the Kyrie:
“Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.”
And as we sing in the Sanctus:
“Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth.”
Our worship of God is in the Trinity beginning in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and it is Triune all the way through.
Because here at church, we are worshiping our Triune God and receiving all the things that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit want to give us.
So we can see through the work of God in creation, through the work of God in redemption, and in the work of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in your life and in His Church, that the Trinity is not just some vague concept.
It is not something that you can just take or leave, take off the shelf once a year, and then put back up there.
The Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is your God.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made you, saved you, and continually draw you into Himself through faith.
Amen.
And now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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