Join Ron Kelley, Alan Moore, and Johnny Farr as they discuss Doctrine: Rooted in Truth, Week 6.
The Lesson Plan
Doctrine: Week 6
(upbeat music) - Hello Bible teachers and welcome to The Lesson Plan. This is a podcast designed to help you create memorable and effective lessons. I'm Johnny Far, one of the married adult ministers. And today I'm joined by two Preston Wood legends, Alan Moore, our minister to senior adults and Ron Kelly, our executive director of Preston Wood's foundation. - It's just getting better and better. (laughing) - Appreciate that so much. Good to be with you teachers. - Yeah, well man, I'm excited about the conversation we're gonna have today because we're talking about the doctrine of the Trinity again, more specifically that each person of the Trinity is distinct and yet in perfect fellowship with the other two. Jumping into our curriculum, I wanted to provide you with an alternate hook for you to consider as you prepare to teach this week's lesson. I thought of the construction and rehabilitation happening here at our Plano campus. Many know that our campus was hit by a pretty large windstorm and over the last several months, there's just been construction happening at our church. At this storm, it wrecked havoc and for many more months to come, we're gonna be hearing the sounds of hammers and grinders and all of that. You could remind your group about that and ask them if they've ever been part of a home build or major renovation and illustration of the Trinity using the roles involved in a construction project of the foreman, the superintendent, or another role like the contractor. Can be a helpful analogy or as Ron mentioned last week, a metaphor, though it's important to remember that there's no analogy or metaphor that captures the mystery of the Trinity. But here's how this analogy might work. The foreman could be helpful to help people describe the relationship of God the Father. The foreman oversees the overall project, setting the plans and ensuring the work is done according to the original design. Similarly, God the Father is often seen as the source or origin, the one who wills and initiates creation and the work of salvation. The second role on a construction project would be the superintendent. This would be helpful of people understanding the role of Jesus. The superintendent manages the day-to-day operations ensuring work is done according to the foreman's plan. In Christian belief, Jesus the Son of God is made flesh who enters creation, works to bring about salvation and follows the Father's will to redeem humanity. And then lastly, the other role would be the role of a builder. This could be helpful in describing the role of the Holy Spirit. The builder is responsible for the hands-on work, implementing the plan and overseeing the ongoing progress. Similarly, the Holy Spirit is active in the world, sustaining and completing the work, the Son, empowering believers and working in the church to bring about spiritual growth and transformation. All three of those roles, the foreman superintendent contractor, they work together on the same goal, completing the project, but they perform distinct functions. Although they have different roles, they are all equally essential and work harmoniously to accomplish the same purpose, just as the Trinity exists as one God in three persons, united in essence and purpose. Again, this analogy while helpful for grasping these distinct roles, it has its limits. For example, in the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are fully God and perfectly united in will and essence. As I mentioned, there are many metaphors to help us grasp the doctrine. None of them are perfect, but they all break down at some point. Another alternate hook could be you could ask your group to share the metaphors on the Trinity that they have heard before. You can likely expect one of them to be, as mentioned last week, H20 or an egg. I've even heard an apple. We've heard a lot of things, but this hook is simply designed to help get conversation going and people opening up and sharing. Let's jump into point one. Alan, what are your thoughts on this truth? Each person of the Trinity is distinct and yet perfect in fellowship with the other two. Oh, that was the main point. Well, Alan, let's jump into point one. Would love to hear your thoughts on God is our loving father who shows us a balance of discipline and grace. - All right, thank you, Johnny. I wanna begin by reading the two passages given at the beginning of your lesson plan. Psalm 23 one through four, very, very familiar passage. So powerful, says the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Now, I wanna read this in the message translation. Sometimes reading it from this or another simplified translation helps bring a fresh perspective and understanding. And I would encourage you to consider doing that from time to time, not every week. Maybe you could have someone read it from the NIV or the NASB or King James. And then you as the teacher read it from the message that says, God, my shepherd, I don't need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows. You find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction. Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I'm not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure. What a wonderful description of a loving and caring God who walks with us and provides for us and cares for his own. And then the passage in Exodus 34, six and seven, says, and the Lord passed before him, speaking of Moses, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting in the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. Here we're given a passage that speaks of the mercy, grace and love we all have and are grateful for, but that it also speaks of God's justice, his discipline because of his love. So many times through the years, and I think this will relate with the younger divisions that still have children in the home, maybe even with four and five with grandchildren, but in the parenting role, the parallel of loving, of our love as parents for our children and God's amazing love for us, his children. There's some strong parallels. Although we want to provide for and protect and guide and defend and bless our children, there are times when it is necessary to correct, to discipline and to show our love for correction and guidance, show our love through correction and guidance. Parents, have you ever had to practice tough love? Younger parents, you haven't gotten there yet, but hold on, the day may be coming, but those who have wouldn't you agree that it seems more difficult for us than for your child? I imagine it to be the same for our Heavenly Father who loves us more than we could ever imagine and wants to pour his love over us, but then we sin, we rebel, and at times walk away from following him, and although he still loves us, he withholds his blessings. He practices tough love until we return in repentance and come back to him with restored fellowship. Now, where we differ as parents, not like this is the only way, but God's grace and discipline are in perfect balance, and often as parents we miss this healthy balance, either with too severe of a discipline or an inconsistent discipline, or in some cases, not enough discipline. That's the challenge of parenting. Sometimes these little children will play us one parent against the other, whereas God is always in perfect balance in showing his love through discipline and through grace and mercy. Hands-down parenting is the most difficult job in the world, but we can certainly be reminded of and learn from God's love for us and how he pours out his blessings upon his children who walk in honor and obedience, but when needed, also disciplines and corrects us for our good. I'm so very grateful for a Christian father. I had who loved me, supported me in sports, and in other ways while growing up, but who also helped keep me in line and helped form my character. Because of this, it is easy for me to trust God as my loving heavenly father. I'm very thankful for that. That is not the case for everyone. Those without good earthly dads or male figures in their lives may struggle, seeing God as their father and trusting in his goodness and his love for them. But hopefully this lesson will help in this much needed relationship of trusting him as their father. - That's so good. Thank you for that, those additional supplements. Ron, transitioning to talking point two, God the Son is God made flesh. He's 100% God and 100% human. Talk to us about your thoughts of what we can add to this lesson. - Well, I like that in the talking point, 100% God and 100% human. And our text for this point will be Colossians chapter one verses 15 through 20, and also the Gospel of John, chapter one verses one through five and verse 14. Now, you're gonna be given an opening question in your teaching packet. I think it's a great question to start off with. And it's why is it significant that God the Son dwelled among us? What does this tell us about his love for us and his relationship with us? Now, there's a very detailed answer to that, but I would share a simple answer that is twofold. I would say first, Jesus came both to show us who God is and secondly, he came also to usher in the kingdom of God. We see where Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke, chapter four, verse 43, he says, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose. Everything Jesus said and everything he did, the healings, the casting out of demons, the teaching, the miracles showed the world what the kingdom of God is like, a place with no suffering, disease, pain, inequity, injustice, or evil here. And when we look at Colossians chapter one, again, verses 15 through 20, the title of this section is called "The Preeminence of Christ." I love that word preeminence and I've always looked up the definition of words and but if you look up preeminence, it means superior, the fact of surpassing all here. And what we're going to see in the first four verses of this text is the Lord Jesus Christ being described and it begins with in his relationship with God. So if we look at verse 15, it says he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. So God made himself visible to our mortal eyes here and that is why he is referred to as the image of the invisible God. Whoever saw Jesus, they saw the Father. We see in the Gospel of John chapter 14, verse nine, Jesus said to them, "Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say show us the Father?" And we see in verses 16 and 17, it shows Jesus' relationship to creation. Verse 16, it says, "For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. For 17 and he is before all things and in him all things hold together." I want you to check out the present tense in verse 17, the present tense of the word is. It doesn't say and he was before all things. It tells us that he is before all things. Not only did Jesus exist before there was any creation but also in him all things hold together. What does this mean? It means Jesus is the sustainer of the universe and the source of its perpetual motion. He controls the stars, the sun and the moon. He runs the universe and he is the creator. So lastly, verse 18 shows his relationship to the church. It says, "And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent." Now the church is the body of Christ. Now we know it as a fellowship of believers and the church is the greatest organization that has ever existed in the history of mankind. And despite our flaws and our faults because it's filled with sinful man, the church has done more good for mankind than any other organization in the history of the world here. And Jesus is the head of the church. Jesus occupies the place of prominence in the church. And we see verse 19, "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." And this what this tells us is that Jesus is fully God and he is fully man. Now that's hard for some people to comprehend because one moment we see Jesus thirsty for water and the next moment he's common the seas here. And I think of often the physical pain that Jesus endured during the crucifixion. He felt it just like we would feel it, but he was God at any time he could have called it off. Scripture tells us that there were tens of thousands of angels there just waiting to take care of Jesus, but Jesus had a job to do here. And the physical pain that he endured, but he did all of this at the same time to take on our sin here. Every attribute of God is manifested in the sun. Jesus is God in bodily form. He's not a knock off. He's not a discount brand. I remember as a child, we had a family of five. I'm the only boy. I have two older sisters, two younger sisters. So I'm getting it from both sides. Hand me downs were brutal in my family. And but all my friends had Chuck Taylor Converse high top sneakers. And my parents bought me Sears and Roebuck discount knock off sneakers. I wanted the real thing. Jesus is not a knock off. He is God and he's God in bodily form here. And we see that here in the Gospel of John chapter one, verses one through five and 14 where the word becomes flesh. And what we see in this powerful text is that God and son have always existed. There has never been a time where he was not the son of God. And he has always been, there's always been a father, son, relationship between those two persons of the triune God. I think of in the Gospel of John so many times when we're proven the deity of Christ and the miracles that Jesus is doing and they want to give Jesus all the glory. So no, no, no, I do what the father has told me. He gave all the attention and all the glory to the father. And isn't it interesting at the time when Jesus was on the cross and he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It was at that moment that God the father had to leave his side because Jesus was going to take on our sin here. Look, God the son did not become incarnate as a human at a particular moment in time and experienced this human birth but he was not created just for that moment. He has always been with the father. And we call this the doctrine of eternal sonship. I think we mentioned that in an earlier message here. And I understand again the difficulty of fully comprehending. But again, I go back to our opening statement. Jesus is 100% man and 100% God. Scripture teaches it clearly. And you're going to be given some text to share with your class. I would make sure that you do that. And we see here in the Gospel of John, we read the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's in verse 14. I find it very interesting, the Greek word for dwelt literally means to pitch your tent or your tabernacle here. And John was intentionally pointing back to the concept of God's dwelling in the tabernacle among his people in the Old Testament. In Jesus, God dwelled with his people in a body rather than in a tent. In the wilderness, the tabernacle was placed in the center of the camp. We just learned about this in our study in the book of Exodus. He did this so he could dwell among his people. And as a holy God, he would not stand in his presence. So he made a way for his holy presence to come to us. Look, the purpose was relationship. Our God is an intimate God. He's a relational God. And this holy God pitched his tabernacle right in the middle of their mess and dwelled with his people in intimate fellowship. Look, Jesus did the same thing in coming down to the earth to dwell among his people as a human being that we could see, touch, and talk to. And instead of peoples having to go to the tabernacle to meet God, God made flesh to go into the world and meet people where they were as a human being. He could speak their language and connect with them person to person. Look, this was a total game changer in God's relationship with humanity because he was God the Son made flesh. Jesus made God visible to the world. - That's so good. And I can't think of a better transition. Jesus came and made a dwelling with us, the doctrine of incarnation. And then Alan wrapping us up, God, the Holy Spirit, works in the world and dwells in the heart of believers. So Jesus came to our earth. The Holy Spirit comes and dwells in our heart. Give us some thoughts. - Yeah, there's some great and very familiar scripture passages to read. Encourage you to do those, of course, and be reminded of, but where we find the role of God, the spirit who abides in us. Yes, we are reminded that our bodies are the temple of the spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 6, 19, and 20 says that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and that you are not your own. This should be a great relief and joy knowing that God is with us as his spirit indwells us, that we are not alone or unseen. People need to realize that. Can you imagine Jesus preparing the disciples for his departure? Here he has poured into their lives, walked with them, they've been with him, they've learned from him, and now he's telling them that he's leaving, trying to help them grasp that. John 16, four through 14 speaks of this. Let me read the words of Jesus. But these things I have spoken to you, Jesus telling his disciples so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I have told you of them. However, I did not say these things to you at the beginning because I was with you. The Holy Spirit promised. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you ask me, "Where are you going?" But because I have said these things to you, grief has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I am leaving. Jesus is telling them, they can't grasp that he's telling them, this is gonna be a good thing, stay with me. It's to your advantage that I'm leaving, for if I do not leave, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world regarding sin and righteousness and judgment, regarding sin, because they do not believe in me. And regarding righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and you no longer are going to see me. And regarding judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time. But when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will disclose to you, disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take from mine, and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. This is why I said that he takes from mine, and will disclose it to you. The spirit, and, I mean, just can you imagine being in Christ's presence, hearing that right out of his lips. But he's telling us that as well, of course, as his present day disciples. The spirit of God who indwells every believer serves as our helper. His purpose and desire is to comfort and help us like no other. God, the spirit who indwells us as his children, teaches us the truths of God. He helps us understand God's word. We were just talking about this in between the lessons. The world can't comprehend because the spirit doesn't dwell them, they don't have his help or his teaching. But we as believers have him indwelling us, and his purpose is to help us understand and to teach us the truths of God's word. He grows within us his fruit, the fruit of the spirit, and renews us day by day to be more like Jesus. I love the old hymn, Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me, Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me, break me, melt me, mold me, fill me. Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me. You know, if you're not sure how to begin your day, I would suggest a prayer to sing that hymn to God. Simply say, Spirit of the Living God, may each day be another opportunity for you to have your way in me. May your spirit who indwells me enable and guide me today in living out your love, your joy, your peace, your patience, and so forth. That's his role, that's his desire. All we have to do as his children is to acknowledge his presence in us and to free his spirit within us to accomplish his purpose. And I think that's where we wanna get to. That's good, you know, teacher, what you're doing is Colossians 128 to present everyone fully mature in Christ. If you find yourself getting confused or you see confusion in the eyes of the people in your room, remind yourself that maturity is an ongoing lifelong process. But thank God that he also said that we're called to walk by faith and not by sight. And so if you can't, you don't feel like you're communicating these truths well, that's completely okay. I encourage you to end every lesson with the reminder of the simplicity of our faith being rooted and as a result of Jesus Christ's death on a cross. And it's just our faith in him that gives us salvation. We love you teacher, we're praying for you. It's a joy to come alongside you and help aid in your lesson preparation process. We love to equip you, the saints. We'll see you next week on the lesson plan podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]