16:14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."
There has been much controversy in the Christian church through the centuries over what is commonly referred to as the Trinity. The word Trinity never occurs in the Bible even once. It is a term we came up with to describe/define the relationship of God the Father, Jesus the Son and The Helper/Comforter/Spirit of Truth often referred to as the Holy Spirit.
My goal today is not to define their relationship. The point that was driven home to my mind this morning is a much more basic yet crucial one: They all agree, always. That's it. Nothing more or less. Obvious? Perhaps. If you are in a hurry you can skip the rest. smile emoticon
Here's the thing. Yesterday we saw how the Spirit of Truth has the role of leading us into more and more truth as we are able to handle it. It creates an image of us constantly stretching and growing. There is no such thing as remaining stagnant. Religion ironically is not known for growing and stretching. It is more known for defending the old ways and resisting new everything. Why? Well the reality is not all things new are truth. Eve was presented "new truth" and she embraced it to her demise.
Are you ready for this? Resisting all new ideas is a path to stagnation and death. Embracing every new thing or idea that comes along is equally deadly.
This is why it is so critical to understand and remember that God and Jesus and the Helper are always in full agreement. Jesus will never contradict His Father. The Helper will never contradict Jesus. The Father will never contradict either of them.
As a pastor I can tell you from observation that we humans generally fall into three categories: pioneers, sheep, and traditionalists. Pioneers are always blazing new frontiers. Sheep follow in time. Traditionalists rarely if ever move.
The sheep represent most of us. We tend to go wherever the majority goes. The danger here is that the majority are often if not mostly always going the wrong way. The underlying problem with sheep is that they are not using their own minds. We are called to follow, this is true. And we are called sheep too. However we're called to follow God, not the crowd. Following God requires using our own minds. That is why God said "Come let us reason together..."
The last group are those who refuse to move no matter what. They are the opposite of pioneers. They see anything new as a threat. They sing the old songs, may or may not use instruments, read from the old Bibles and walking into their church buildings is generally like stepping back in time. This way of thinking has brought us Latin only worship services long after the people no longer spoke Latin and now an English Bible that uses English from the 1600's.
Am I being hard on this group? They do play one positive role. They serve as a check and balance for the pioneers and an alternative viewpoint for the sheep to consider but...
If you are paying attention there is one major problem common to all three groups. No one is following God. The pioneers are following all things new, the traditionalists are following all things old and the sheep are following the crowd. It might help you to know that in Jesus' time the Sadducees were the pioneers, the Pharisees were the traditionalists, and neither group was following Jesus. In modern terms we call these two groups the liberals (Sadducees/pioneers) and conservatives (pharisees/traditionalists). The sheep are left to choose between two crowds both headed the wrong way.
The solution. Know God. Know Jesus. Listen to the Voice and always cross check it against the Father and the Son. They are always in agreement and they will never let you stagnate in the past or follow a new rabbit trail going no where good. Keep it simple. Know the Word, listen to the Voice, make sure they agree and you're on the right track. Always. smile emoticon
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