Topic
Trinitarian Theology
3 sermons · All topics
May 18 Sanders Holy Spirit and the Father
How does the Holy Spirit relate to God the Father, and what does that relationship mean for Christian worship and prayer? Working through a chapter on the Holy Spirit and the Father, this study traces the biblical pattern of 'from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit' — and its liturgical reverse, 'in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father' — as the framework for understanding both Trinitarian processions and the nature of true worship. The discussion addresses the Spirit's work in the old and new covenants, the cessation of the revelatory gifts at the completion of the New Testament canon, and the Spirit's role in empowering prayer, drawing particularly on John Owen's treatment of Ephesians 2:18 and Romans 8:26-27.
The Blessing of Communion with God
John 14:19–24 sets before the disciples the blessing of communion with the triune God as the ground of their mission and perseverance. Jesus distinguishes what the world cannot see — the significance of his life, death, and resurrection — from what believers perceive by faith: imputed righteousness, substitutionary atonement, and life grounded in his own. The sermon traces two movements: the believer's communion with Christ (vv. 19–21), including the blessing of eternal life and the blessing of obedience-born love, and the triune God's communion with the believer (vv. 22–24), where the plural pronoun 'we will come and make our home' discloses Father, Son, and Spirit indwelling the justified. The chief application is that sanctification — love to Christ expressed in keeping his commandments — is the natural reflex of justification, not its condition.
The Father's Plan of Redemption
Ephesians 1:3–6 opens a doxology that gives the believer a glimpse into the eternal counsel of the triune God — what Reformed theology calls the covenant of redemption, or pactum salutis. The Father's role in that counsel is threefold: he blesses his people with every spiritual blessing in Christ, he sovereignly elects and predestines a multitude to adoption as sons, and he does all of this to the praise of his glorious grace. The sermon calls believers to respond to this free and sovereign electing love not with presumption but with worship, obedience, and a deepened sense of the gravity of sinning against so gracious a Father.