Dear Christian friends:

During the past six months, from December until today, we have celebrated the important events that God let happen for our salvation. Every church year we do this, beginning with the First Sunday in Advent and ending with Trinity Sunday, which is today. These events tell of the work of our Triune God: The work of the Father who loved us and gave His Son the first Christmas; the work of the Son who obeyed the Father's good and gracious will and suffered and died for our sins on the Cross; and the work of the Holy Spirit who gives us faith and all spiritual gifts.

Our text today summarizes these wonderful deeds of our Triune God which give us eternal life and salvation. Therefore let us attend to our text and:


Let us praise the Father who "so loved the world."

The Father loved us so much that He didn't want us to "perish." I think you know what that word "perish" means. Perhaps a few of you do not know. It means to be cut off from God! Forsaken forever in hell! The world deserves this from God because of sins, because of its hatred, enmity, and rebellion against God. Man wants to go his own way, not God's way. That is our natural condition. Nevertheless God so loved the world and pitied it. He didn't want the world to perish. He swears and says, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked: but I desire that the wicked turn from his way and live."

So the Father "gave His only begotten Son." He gave His dear Son to become a man with us and accept our sin, our shame and our condemnation. You fathers, you know that is the worst thing that can happen to you that your son is arrested and put in jail and then condemned to death! No father wants to see his son condemned to death. But that is exactly what God let happen to His Son, Jesus! The Father suffered that and let that happen to His dear Son, Jesus, because He loved the world so much and didn't want to see the world "perish." If the Father punishes the world as it deserves, the world perishes. So, in His great love and wisdom the Father let His Son become a man and accept all men's punishment. The Father's love and His justice forced Him to do it!

O praise the Father today: He loved the world so much: He sacrificed His only begotten Son!

Let us also today, this Trinity Sunday, give special praise to the Son, Jesus! The dear Son loved His Father and accepted the world's sin and condemnation. He accepted that without complaint.

To help us appreciate His beautiful work Jesus in our text refers back to a very interesting event that happened when Moses was leading the Israelites from Egypt, through the desert, to the country God promised to them. The people were fed up and tired of eating the manna wafers that God let rain down each morning. They complained against God and against Moses. So God punished them! He let poison snakes come and bite them and many of them were dying. Then the people were sorry and they asked Moses to pray to God for them. Moses did that and God told him to make a serpent of brass and hang it on a cross. Then those who were bitten by the snakes, if they looked at the cross, they would not die, but live. So Moses did that and many people believed God's promise and they looked at the brass serpent on the cross and were saved. (Numbers 21:5-9) Jesus refers to that event and says about Himself, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life." (verses 14-15) Same as the brass serpent on the cross in the wilderness saved the dying Israelites from God's punishment, so Jesus on the Cross of Calvary saves the world from God's just punishment!

See how much the Son loves the world! How He loves the Father and accepts the Cross! O, believe on the Son! Rejoice and praise the Son, Jesus, on this Trinity Sunday!

On this happy, holy day let us also give praise to the Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Holy Trinity.

In our text Jesus explains to the Jewish rabbi, Nicodemus, about the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit for our salvation. Through the Holy Spirit we are born again!

Nicodemus thought that he was a child of God, one of God's people. He was born of Jewish parents. When he was 8 days old he was circumcised, as Moses had commanded all Jewish baby boys must be. Nicodemus had learned the Ten Commandments and all the Jewish laws and he tried to keep then carefully. He thought that he was one of God's people.

So, he was surprised and shocked when Jesus told him that he must be born again if he wanted to become one of God's people. He did not understand. He asked Jesus, "How can a man be born again?" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (verses 3-6)

Those who are born only once, of natural, sinner parents, are not God's children. They are "flesh," sinners, and cannot please God no matter if they are born of rich, respectable parents. We all need the second birth by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads us to believe in and trust God's love in Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to our hearts through baptism, through preaching and through the Lord's Supper. Through God's Word the Holy Spirit comes to us and gives us faith, new birth and new life. And through the Word He keeps us alive and living for God.

Are you born again? Are you alive in Christ? Are you inspired to love and serve God? If not, now is the time to confess your sins and be baptised and receive the second birth. Don't delay! Tomorrow may be too late! If you are born again and alive in Christ, don't boast about it! Humbly praise the Holy Spirit that has called you out of spiritual darkness and death to the light and life of Jesus Christ!

For our salvation and new, eternal life let us give all praise to the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Amen.