Dennis Tuuri

# Romans 8:9-11 Perichoresis and Evangelism

Today’s sermon text is found in Romans 8. Can you hear me now? Okay. Today’s sermon text is from Romans 8. I’m actually only going to be referencing a couple of the verses there, but I thought we could put it in context by reading verses 1-17. We’re doing a topical study today, a sermon on the mutual indwelling of the Trinity as the basis for our lives together in community.

So Romans 8, I’ll read verses 1-17. Please stand.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs—heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we should also be glorified together.

Let’s pray. Father, bless us with an understanding of who you are and who we are as your image bearers. Bless us, Lord God, to the end that we may be growing in maturity and unity and as a result of that be effective as a bright shining light for our Savior in this world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Please be seated.

So we want to talk today about things of God directly and then implications of that for who we are. I’ve mentioned the last couple of sermons where we were headed. And we have a five-syllable word, perichoresis, that we’ll be talking about in a couple of minutes. But I think that this topic of who God is and who we’re called to be as members of a community together is extremely significant, as I’ve said several times now, for evangelism. This is exactly what John 17 tells us is so important—in the world observing our witness.

So we’re going to have a heavenly perspective. Now when we come to church, this is what we always do. God restores us to glory through the assurance of our forgiveness. He gives us knowledge from a heavenly perspective and then we come and have rejoicing life together at the table. So glory, knowledge, and life—the threefold movement of God’s gifts to us. And we’re called into that. And then we’re commissioned after that, the fivepoint of worship. So knowledge is at the center of that in terms of the flow of these things, and knowledge is a heavenly perspective on the world.

You know, we look at the world today and we see great difficulties. In Sunday school this morning we were talking from Ecclesiastes chapters 3 and 4, and Solomon’s observation is that the very place where there’s supposed to be justice—the government courts, judges—there is unrighteousness, there’s injustice and tyranny so often inhabiting these places. That’s an observation. And so it’s not unusual what we’re experiencing as a nation.

I saw an email this week I wanted to read to you. The email is called “Putting Things in Perspective,” and it’s about the inability of the government to build the webpage for the Affordable Care Act. And the email says this: “March 21st, 2010 to October 1st, 2013 is 3 years, 6 months, 10 days. December 7th, 1941 to May 8th, 1945 is 3 years, 5 months, 1 day.

What this means is that the time from when we were attacked on Pearl Harbor to the day Germany surrendered is not enough time for the progressive federal government to build a working webpage. Mobilization of millions, building tens of thousands of tanks, planes, jeeps, subs, cruisers, destroyers, torpedoes, millions upon millions of guns, bombs, ammo, etc. Turning the tide in North Africa, invading Italy, D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Race to Berlin, all while we were also fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. And in that amount of time, this administration can’t build a working webpage.”

Now, I don’t quote that from a left or right political perspective. I quote that email to show you how broken things are becoming in our culture. And I think I’ve mentioned this before—Bob Dylan had that song, “Everything is Broken.” There’s simply, you know, I don’t think we have to read conspiracy theories into this. Things are broken down.

And what we’re going to talk about today is an understanding of the person of God and the unity of the three persons of God in the Trinity—unity and diversity. And there’s a wholeness and integrity to that. And as a culture moves away from that, you know, back in the ’40s, we were still primarily Christian. Most people went to church, kept moral standards, etc., etc., etc., and as a result things worked a lot better. But as a culture moves away from God, it moves toward disunity. And that’s what we have today. I think a heavenly perspective on what’s going on in our nation shows us the effects of a movement away from the God who is the center and establisher of order, right relationships, and effectiveness in all that we do and say.

Now, what we’re trying to do in this series of sermons that began several months ago is get the gospel right and get the gospel out. Okay? Getting the gospel right. And I’ve got on your handouts multilayered words: indicatives and imperatives. Right? So an indicative sentence is a simple statement of fact. An imperative is a command to us. Right? So that’s what these two words mean. And a lot of times we can get the gospel confused with imperatives—what we’re supposed to do. But the gospel is not an imperative. It has a required response, a response that comes from it. But the gospel itself is a statement of fact. It’s not a wish. It’s not a hope, in the sense of “gosh, I hope” or wish or something. It’s not “what you have to do to get saved.” It’s “what Jesus did to save his people.”

So getting the gospel right means it is a declaration of a fact. Now what that fact is, we could say in multiple different ways. I’d still like to see some tweets on it. I’ve seen a few tweets on the internet about the gospel, but I’d like you to come up with an idea of a short sentence—what the gospel is. In your community groups, it’s really important that young people and adults can understand what the simplicity of the gospel declaration is. I mean, one short thing that we’ve used for thirty years here came from R.G. Rushdoony. It’s “the good news of the ascension of the Savior King to the throne.”

Now, he saved us by his life and death and resurrection. Okay? So you’ve got forgiveness of sins in there—that Jesus has forgiven definitively the work of his people. But it’s got more than that in there. He’s also a king. He’s Jesus Savior, but he’s Christ the King. And the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. And this Savior King has ascended to the throne. The world has been put to rights—to use an “anti-rights” phrase—definitively. The gospel is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The gospel is that the world has been put to rights and that from now on history is about the working out of how that works in history. But it’s a declared fact. That’s what’s happened. The gospel is that the new creation has arrived through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we want to get the gospel right. And then we want to get the gospel out. And that’s the purpose of these sermons is to talk about getting the gospel out. And I don’t understand necessarily the mechanics of it, but I believe John 17 when it says that Jesus prays for the unity of the church that we might be unified together the way the Father is in Christ and Christ is in the Father. The unity that they have in the Trinity. That’s the unity Jesus prays for us.

And the end result of this, he says, “So that the world may know.” How does that work out? I don’t know. I don’t have to know. What I have to know is that’s what the Bible says and I believe it. And I believe that to the extent that a church or the broader church is not unified in the same kind of unity that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has, to that extent we won’t be effective in evangelizing the world and turning back the sort of brokenness that this country has and becoming a country once more that submits to Jesus.

John 17:21 says it quite clearly: “That they all may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”

So that’s getting the gospel out through the development of the sort of unity in the church that the Trinity has in eternity.

So response—I used this last week: root and fruit. I guess I said some things that might have troubled you last week, but all I was trying to do is distinguish indicatives from imperatives. The indicative, the root of everything, is this announcement of what Jesus Christ has done. Regardless of whether you believe it or not, it is a fact. That’s the gospel. That’s the root. The fruit are all kinds of other great things that we end up doing. But we’re not to confuse the fruit with the root.

The Great Commission, right? What’s the Great Commission? Going to all the world, right? Preaching the gospel, making disciples of the nations. Well, actually, it begins with one thing first. There’s a sentence just before that, right? Jesus says, “All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me.” Jesus is saying that what he’s in the context of doing through his resurrection and pending ascension is to be the ruler of this world—to dispossess the ruler of the world that the whole world was serving up to the point of Christ’s coming. The ruler of this world was Satan—to dispossess him and that he now has all authority in heaven and on earth. That’s the gospel.

So he says, “This is the gospel. Now this is what I want you to do. Here are the imperatives. Go out, make disciples, baptize them, etc.” And then what does he end the Great Commission with? “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” More gospel. So the imperatives are surrounded by indicatives—by statements of fact that have tremendous power to them and comfort to us knowing that Jesus has accomplished these things. It’s not an “if we go along with the program” sort of thing.

So that’s what we’re trying to do: get the gospel right and get the gospel out.

So what we want to do today is to look a little bit at the implications of what John 17:23 says—that the unity we’re supposed to have is like the unity found in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

So we’ve got here on your outline the three major points we’re going to make. First of all, the perichoretic—there it is, the five-syllable word. You know, you can learn this word, your kids can learn this word. It’s really not hard. But perichoretic—and maybe I should use a different word, but I don’t know what it would be. And we’ll talk about what it means: the perichoretic nature of the Trinity, the sort of unity that exists in the Trinity. That’ll be point number one, and that’s where we’ll look at most of the scriptures.

Point number two is the perichoretic nature of God and our call to unity in the body from John 17:23. If we understand the nature of the unity in the Trinity, if we delight in the wondrous revelation of who God is and specifically who he is in community, then we’re also supposed to, in response to that wonderful truth, respond by trying to change our lives so that we can also engage in that kind of unity in the body.

And then third: implications of the perichoretic nature of the Trinity for submission. So when we look at how it works in the body and then we look specifically at relationships—right, how do we submit to one another, how does a wife submit to her husband, how do congregants submit to elders, how do we submit to civil rulers—submission and the nature and social relationship amongst the Trinity has a lot to say about that.

All right, so this term perichoresis—perichoresis—from which the adjective perichoretic is taken, perichoresis. This is a Greek term used for a long time to talk about the relationship of the Trinity. Quoting Peter Leithart: “Since the Patristic period, perichoresis has been a technical term to describe the interrelations of the persons of the Trinity. The noun comes from a Greek verb that means to contain or to penetrate and describes the three persons of the Trinity as mutually indwelling, permeating, interpenetrating one another. Each person both wholly envelops and is wholly enveloped by the other.”

Okay, so that’s kind of what it is. It’s simply the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity where they are penetrating or indwelling one another fully. And so that’s what this term is. And I’m sorry it’s such a big, awkward term, but that’s just what we’ve got going on.

So I wanted to, as we begin to talk about this, read a quote from Augustine when he was speaking on the doctrine of the Trinity. He says: “In the case of those who inquire more into the unity of the Trinity—of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit—He said we have to be careful here because in no other subject is error more dangerous or inquiry more laborious or the discovery of truth more profitable.”

So when we look at the Trinity, says we’ve got to be careful because if we err here it’s going to have implications for our lives that are very negative. On the other hand, if we understand it correctly—the nature of the God we serve—it’s tremendously beneficial to us. It’s hard work. It’s work that can yield great benefits, but it’s also work that we need to be careful about and not go beyond what the scriptures reveal to us. That could be error.

Psalm 115, while talking about those who worship idols, tells us by implication that whatever we worship, we become like. If we have a view of the Trinity that does not comport with reality, right, then we’re going to become like that view that we have. I’m going to give a sermon here in a few weeks on volunteerism—the idea of voluntary associations instead of relying upon coercion, etc. Well, there’s a new book out that talks about how a view of the will of God as being his primary characteristic has sort of developed the modern man who thinks that his will is all that’s important in life. So he worships a God who is all will, all sovereignty without love, without mercy, without justice being on equal planes—ends up with a people who become then those who are greatly willing things to happen in their lives, who emphasize their own will.

So we become like the God we worship. And so when we get the worship of God and understanding of God wrong, it has potentially tremendous negative consequences.

Genesis 1:27 says that we were created in God’s image. “In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Herman Bavinck, systematic theologian, says in the beginning—what Herman Bavinck says about this is: “This mystery is the vital element of dogmatics. The truth which God has revealed concerning himself in nature and in scripture far surpasses human conception and comprehension.”

So we can know some things about this, but we are finite creatures. We are not God. We have creaturely knowledge of the Creator. Now it’s enough to do what we’re supposed to do, but we must approach these subjects with a degree of our own limitations. And where God, as Calvin says, shuts his mouth, we dare not open ours. Right. Okay.

I wanted to, before we actually get into the texts themselves about the nature of God, give a couple of examples in created order—there probably are tons of them. This sounds like a very difficult topic. How do the three persons of the Trinity mutually indwell each other and yet remain distinct individual persons? So the error would be they’re persons who never really indwell one another—or on the other side, that they’re a Trinity, that would be tritheism, three gods. Over here there’d be one God without the difference of persons. So it’d be all unity and no diversity. Over here, all diversity and no unity. So how does this work? Can we think of examples? Well, we can.

If you go over here to this piano and play a three-note chord, you get a sense of what we’re talking about today. Music is interesting. It inhabits spatial territory in a way that solid things don’t. It indwells space in a way that solid things don’t—not as distinctly in a particular place, right? So if I play that chord—if I knew how to play that chord, which I don’t, but if that chord is played, it sort of is here. And no matter which way you turn, it’s sort of there, which is kind of this idea of indwelling.

But the other obvious thing I’m talking about is you’ve got three notes that comprise a chord. Now you hear the chord and you also hear the three notes. So there’s individuality, there’s diversity of notes, but there’s unity of the sound of that chord. So music is an excellent example of notes mutually indwelling each other and then that mutually indwelling unity and diversity indwelling a particular space. Okay, does that make sense? Got that? It’s kind of what we’re talking about. It’s about unity and diversity, and it’s an example of that.

And actually spatial things do as well. So we’ve got a table and we’ve got things set on this table, but they’re not completely distinct things, are they? They comprise a unity together where this table and its settings are telling a particular thing to you. There’s a unity to it and there’s a diversity. Now we couldn’t say, you know, that the wine indwells the table, but there’s a sense in which—so it’s not as good as the musical illustration, but that’s the sort of thing that we’re talking about in terms of the triune God.

Now we talk about this and I don’t want to just make the assertions, right? I want to talk about this based upon what the word of God says.

So we want to turn then to the first point of the outline and begin to work our way through the scriptures that are there that give an example of the way this works out in the context of the Trinity.

So first of all, in terms of creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water.” So we have God and, you know, frequently in the scriptures when God is differentiated it’s talking about the Father. Just plug that away. But we also have the Spirit of God in the words of, I think, Frame—sort of moving back and forth, bringing organic life out of inorganic matter. So the Spirit of life is moving in the context of creation as well as God the Father.

John 1 stating this says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So we’ve got the Word, which is Jesus, with God, which seems like it’s talking here about the Father, right? And in the beginning, the Father and the Son we could say mutually indwelling each other are involved in the work of creation.

So who made the world? The Father, the Son, or the Spirit? And the answer from these texts is yes—all three of them made the world. So it’s, well, how do we—how does that work? It seems like saying God made the world, seems like Christ made the world, seems like the Holy Spirit was making the world. But the scriptures, in affirming all of these, is affirming them because the triune God is one being, has a unity to him, existing in three persons. It’s this perichoresis, this mutually indwelling.

“He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him.” So now we’re saying God made all things, and we just read in Genesis 1, or we’re saying here that rather that Jesus made all things. And we just read that the Father made all things, right? “And without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

Well, I thought it was the Holy Spirit who was bringing life to the creation. Do you see? You can’t talk about these with huge separators between them because they mutually indwell each other. And in the context of the created order, all three people created the world.

Colossians 1: “For by him all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him.”

So in terms of the very beginning of our knowledge of God as the Creator, right, which is where Paul starts his apologetic to the Athenians, right? At the very beginning of our knowledge of God, we see that God is community. He is a God with three persons mutually indwelling each other, of whom you can say that this one made it, this one made it, this one made it. And in fact, all of those statements are true and asserted by the scriptures.

Now, the same thing—if we wanted to look at some verses, we’re not going to take the time, but you know, salvation is the same thing, right? Traditionally it’s described as the plan of the Father, the action of the Son, and the application of salvation by the Holy Spirit. But if we looked at the text about how redemption occurs, we’d see, you know, just the same sort of thing we just saw in the description of the creation, the recreation of all things. This is John’s point—is like the creation of all things. And so all three members of the Trinity are involved in that.

Now John 17 is where we began this a couple of weeks ago. So if we turn back to there:

Something interesting that we can say is John 17:1 says this: “Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that your Son also may glorify you.’”

So there’s a glorification that goes both ways—Father and Son. Here again in John 16:14: “He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you.” So the glory of God—we see then that the Son brings glory to the Father, the Father brings glory to the Son. The Spirit is the one that brings glory to the Son. We can see that in John 16:14.

Such an understanding of glory exhibits the love—the love expressed within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as they mutually give glory to each other. So what this means is it’s the kind of unity that we’re supposed to have in the church. It’s the kind of unity where there’s a mutual indwelling and where, you know, individuals are significant, but they also work in unity and where glory is one of the ways that the scriptures talk about this mutual indwelling of one another.

And we talked about this before. One of the most significant ways we can build community is the same way the Trinity exhibits itself, which is in the giving of mutual glory one to the other.

Now, Romans 8 does the same sort of thing in terms of the Trinity—with who’s living in us, who dwells in us.

Well, we read: “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.” So Romans 8 is talking about this wonderful truth that we’re children of God. We cry out, “Abba, Father,” by the Holy Spirit. So we’re the children of God. We present his qualities, right? The triune God’s qualities, and we’re indwelt by God. And that’s what’s being affirmed in verses 9 to 11: “You are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.”

So now this mutual indwelling is going on with God himself indwelling his people. And this says it’s the Spirit of God that indwells you. “Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his.” Okay. So which is it? Is it the Spirit of God the Father or is it the Spirit of Christ? And of course it’s both, again, right? Just like the creation story: “Who made the world?” Well, each of them did. “Who indwells you?” The Spirit. And it’s the Spirit of the Father and it’s the Spirit of the Son.

And the text goes on to say: “Then if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies.”

Who raised Christ from the dead? Same kind of question. Jesus says he’ll raise himself back up, right? “Tear down this temple, this house, and I’ll raise it up in three days.” So he says he raises himself up. Here the obvious answer to what Paul is saying is that the Father raised Christ. And so it’s the Spirit of the Father who dwells in you. But it’s also Christ who is in you. And the context for all of this is it’s the Spirit of God in you.

So the perichoretic nature of God is what is indwelling you, because God is always perichoretic. It’s not at certain times. We see it in creation. We see it in salvation. We see it in our life reflecting the life of the triune God.

Now, Augustine said, “This sort of work has great profit to it, but it is laborious,” right? So maybe this is a little hard for you to think about, kids. You know, maybe you’re having a tough time thinking about this, but it’s really from one angle very simple. It’s like that musical chord of three notes. God isn’t three separate beings who are not, who don’t have relationships with each other. God is three separate beings who dwell within, overlapping, enveloping each other. Okay? And so when God does things—whether it’s creating things or bringing us salvation or indwelling us so that we understand and reflect the sonship of God—all three of them are doing it. All three of them are doing it.

Now, a couple of other verses. John 14: “Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long and yet you have not known me? He who has seen me has seen the Father.’”

He who has seen me has seen the Father. This is a big theme throughout John’s gospel. And what he’s saying is “I and the Father are one.” He actually says that, you know, explicitly in another part of John’s gospel. But if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. How can he say that? Because of the perichoretic nature of the Trinity—because the Father and the Son mutually indwell each other. So if you see the Son, you see the Father.

Now you know salvation is seeing and knowing God. And you know Jesus says, “No man has seen God at any time, but I am here to show you the Father.” Okay? And so salvation comes—the gospel is that God is now seen. If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen the Father, and by implication the work of the Spirit as well. Jesus is indwelt by the Spirit. And as a result, man now has salvation. He has a knowledge of God.

So the perichoretic nature is essential to our salvation, and it’s also tremendously affirmed in John’s gospel. He goes on to say: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak in my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works.”

So I’m speaking the Father’s words. I’m doing these works. But the Father is doing—who’s doing the works of Jesus? The Father or Jesus? Both. And he does it in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the mutual indwelling of the three persons of God.

“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.”

So Jesus makes this affirmation.

John 17 says—and this is where we started with all of this—”That they all may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in oneness, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.”

Get it? So our unity is analogous to—it can’t fully reflect the unity of the triune God. We can’t. We’re still fallen creatures. But that’s what it’s based upon—is that mutual indwelling of one another that we read about throughout the scriptures in terms of the Trinity.

Now I want to go back to John 1:1 for one purpose. He says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Now that word “with”—he could have used a different Greek word for “with,” but the particular word he used (pros, I think it is) implies movement toward. If he wanted just to say that Jesus is statically with the Father, he probably would have used a different Greek word. The idea in here at the beginning of John’s gospel that’s going to talk about the perichoretic nature of the Trinity—the idea is that nature is not static. That nature is that Jesus is with the Father, always moving toward the Father.

Now how can that be? Because the Son is fully indwelt by the Father, and the Father fully indwelt by Christ, and the Spirit as well. How can it be? I don’t know. But the point is the Word of God wants us to think of perichoretic unity in terms of motion, movement, growth of relationship. The same thing’s true in verse 18.

“Word became flesh, dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father’s side or in the Father’s bosom—he has made him known. He has executed him.”

Now, so the point is we now see the Father by the execution of Jesus, by the declaration, by the revelation of who Jesus is walking this earth and then his life reflected in the Gospels. But what I want to point out here is it describes Jesus as the one who is in the bosom of the Father, at the Father’s side. But again, the particular Greek construction doesn’t mean passively at the Father’s side. It means continually moving closer to the Father’s side.

Now again, how can that be? In one sense, that’s not true. In one sense, God is in perfection, right? But I think that for our sake, he writes this way so that we would recognize that the unity that we’re supposed to have is that kind of growing relationship with one another.

So you see, I talked last week, you know, the problems of struggles and fights in the church—wisdom from below. Actually, it’s not wisdom, but it’s not the wisdom from above. So that’s bad. It’s bad to have fights in the church, and we know why and we know the corrective for it based on James. But what this means is it’s not enough just not to be ticked off at somebody here. If we’re supposed to have the kind of unity in the church that is reflected in this mutual indwelling of the three persons of the Trinity, and if that’s described for us as Jesus moving ever closer to the Father—okay?—and what we can do is infer from that the same is true the other way around: Father’s moving closer to the Son, Son moving—they’re all moving, okay?

And what that means is that for us, our relationship with each other shouldn’t just not be at odds. It shouldn’t just be static. It’s supposed to be a growing understanding of each other. Do you see that? If that’s what we’re to make our evangelism—to get the gospel out—we need to be unified the way that the triune God is unified. And the triune God is unified, at least in some revealed sense to us, in motion with a growing relationship.

And so that’s how we’re supposed to be: growing relationship. Hope that makes sense to you, and I hope that makes you think a little bit. All right? How am I doing with that? Am I just content to know a few people here now? Yeah, there’s close friends. There’s not as close friends, and then there’s others in the church. I’m not denying any of that. But the point is our unity is supposed to be a growing development of unity together. It’s not enough just to try to take care of the sins that occur, but rather we have to actually be growing in relationship with the rest of the saints here at RCC. Okay?

A couple more brief verses. John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.”

Same point. John 10:38: “But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in the Father.”

So this is repeated a number of times, particularly in John’s gospel—this idea that the Father and Son mutually indwell each other and by implication the Holy Spirit as well. Okay, so that’s the perichoretic nature of God. And what does it do? What does it do? What response does it call from us?

And I’ve got several things here. The reason for the season. I’ve been a big proponent of giving gifts at Christmas time. You know, I know some people get upset about consumerism and all that stuff, but you see, every Christmas we sort of practice the kind of perichoretic unity we’re supposed to have with one another. We think of other people in our family or some friends or maybe everybody, and we give gifts and we receive gifts.

The nature of the triune God is the Father is gifting the Son, the Father is gifting the Spirit, the Spirit is gifting the Father and the Son. Every direction there is a giving and receiving from one another. Okay? And so what that means is that’s what we’re supposed to be like. The reason for the season is the gospel that Jesus has brought new creation to the world. But the new creation consists in saints who are growing in their relationship to one another, who give gifts to one another—knowledge, friendship, comfort, consolation, whatever it is. Okay? Not just talking about gift-giving, but give gifts to one another and also receive gifts from one another.

You know, some people have a pretty easy time giving things to others, but they have a hard time receiving things from others because of pride or embarrassment or whatever it is. So giving and receiving.

And I wanted to mention here that the next three Sundays—I can always work in these plugs. So the next three Sundays, the deacons want me to announce today that we’re going to be doing the alms offering particularly for people within the congregation of RCC who have particular financial needs. Now, the Bible’s quite clear, and I can’t go into it now in depth, but it’s obvious in the Bible. It’s quite clear that those that have more are supposed to share with those that have less.

And so every year at Christmas time, this is what we do every year. And so we’re going to do it for the next three weeks. If you have a desire to assist somebody that has less money, to bring more joy to their Christmas this season here in the church, bring that money up to the alms box during the offertory or when you come up for communion, and that money will be collected for the next three weeks. And the deacons will then apportion that money out to particular people with particular needs here.

So it’s a way to practically, right away, you can put my sermon today into practice if you’re one of those that has more money that can give to people with less money and add to their Christmas joy. And so this is part of how we live this out—giving gifts to one another in relationship.

Can Jesus cut in? You know, if we’re to mutually indwell each other’s lives, then what it means is we want to make room for each other. So if you call me on the phone during the week, I shouldn’t be upset that you’re interrupting whatever I was doing, and you shouldn’t be fearful about interrupting what I’m doing. Because this is what God does. Rather than seeing people as interruptions to our plans, to the mission that we’re on at a particular point in time, we should remember—now there are times when you can’t take calls. I understand that. But we should remember that in general our mission is to reflect the nature of God in our relationships with each other. That’s our mission. Our mission should be to gladly receive interruptions to our particular submission that we’re on for the sake of the great mission that we’re evidence of—a unity amongst us—and that drives evangelism.

So when you call me this week, not being afraid of interrupting me, and when I receive your call, not getting bugged by the interruption, but rather we both see it as an opportunity to actually live out the nature of the triune God in community. You see, that’s a wonderful thing. And what it means is you’re doing evangelism, right? “What are you talking about? I’m doing evangelism.” Well, that’s what the text says. The text says that the unity of the church reflecting the unity of God means that the world somehow ends up becoming convinced that God sent us. And so you’re doing evangelism by mutually indwelling each other.

I don’t know. I mean, I know it’s a little bit of a stretch, but it seems to me that’s what the logic of the thing is. A equals B, B equals C. That’s what it is. Are you doing that?

Can Jesus cut in? Well, I would certainly hope so. And Jesus cuts in in the person of other people. And we’re to make room for those kind of things. They’re not to be interruptions. How do we choose to respond to interruptions afterward? We may take the call because Pastor Tuuri said, “Do it.” And then are we depressed because we got sidetracked from our particular thing, or are we excited? Do we receive it with thanksgiving?

You see? Well, if you understand that our huge mission to accomplish evangelism is living perichoretically, interruptions are cool deals. That’s what you want. Now you know, we’ve got to be careful with that. We’ll be calling each other this week and nothing will get done. But you see the point. And this happens in the family. Of course, your children are tremendous. That’s all they are—interruptions. You’ve got these strangers that God brings into your house. Got Gabriel here. Who is he? Nobody knows. But what we do know, he’s a stranger that David and Kathy are going to have to deal with.

Now they love him. I understand that. They came from—I understand all that. But you know, he’s a complete—I’ve raised five kids. They’re all very different from me. I don’t see me in them so much. I suppose there is that. But you know what I’m saying? They’re strangers. And what they do is interrupt your life, right? I was going to have a meeting with David. Interrupted because of Gabriel. Praise God. We receive those interruptions from children.

Marriage is the same thing, right? Your wife’s interrupting you, you’re interrupting your wife. Well, that’s mutual indwelling of one another. And it’s a good thing. So whether it’s here in the context of the church, in our families, whatever, we want to do that.

Biblical hospitality is the love of strangers. And that’s in some way—and I know this is a little bit of a stretch—but when you have little Gabriel, biblical hospitality is embracing the stranger and loving him perichoretically. And that’s what hospitality is in the scriptures.

You know, last week we talked about the wisdom from above—it doesn’t have partiality. One of the things we can do is look around the church every day and see who is there out there that we’re not perichoretically doing a whole lot with. They’re on the edges. They’re sort of isolated. Well, the Bible says salvation’s about community in the body of Christ. What can we do to bring them into that community? And same thing with our kids. You know, kids are the worst at bumping clumping up with their little friends and identifying themselves as not being those people, not being those kids, not being those girls. That’s what, you know, the vipers and diapers do, right? That’s what little kids tend to do in their sinful nature.

So we want to train them to reflect this mutual indwelling of one another in the context of the Trinity. This is what I’ve been talking about for several weeks now—embracing others, particularly those who are strangers, who are quite different than you.

Marriage—the same thing. So this is reflecting that perichoretic nature of God in the context of our personal relationships and particularly here in the context of the church.

Now we began this sermon by talking about how everything is broken. It’s disunified. I saw a movie years ago called “Bee Season,” and the main character is Richard, played by Richard Gere. Don’t let that throw you off. He does a good job in this movie. And the movie is about “tikkun olam.” “Tikkun olam” is a Hebrew phrase meaning “to repair the world.” And the basic idea of that movie is that Richard Gere realizes that everything is broken and shattered, and the job of humanity is to bring things back together, to bring the world to wholeness. Okay?

From the shattered state it’s in. Well, what’s interesting about that is he thinks about it in atheistic terms and weird stuff, but his family is completely broken. And so the movie is about the reuniting of his family that has been shattered. And that’s kind of a good example of what salvation is. The world has been shattered through sin. God is in the process of repairing the world, the brokenness, the fractured pieces, right? He’s bringing us back together. He’s telling us that in our own homes, in our own lives individually, we are little shards of glass. It’s all we are. And God says the beauty of who you are will be most fully reflected when you come together in the kind of unity that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit has together.

Ephesians 4:7-12 is all about this. It explains a theology of vocation that’s based upon community—bearing the fruit of your labor and actually sharing your labor with those that you’re ministering to. Community is the basis of the mission of the world of men and women engaging in the callings that God has given to them. It’s all about this regathering, reunifying things.

You know, the big picture is Jew and Gentile. Jesus comes, brings together Jew and Gentile. He’s bringing together Adam and Eve. He’s fixing marriages. He’s fixing the world. He’s tikkun olam. He’s repairing the world. And when a culture and people move away from that, we end up with the inability to make a website after three and a half years. And when we approach that, we end up with such a beautiful set of relationships that it’s an evidence to the world that the Lord Jesus Christ was indeed sent by God.

I don’t have time to go over the Leithart quote, but I gave it to you in your handouts. It’s page two, and it’s significant. I think it’s very significant. It’s from his book, “Athanasius.” And I’m going to be talking about this in weeks to come, but the idea of submission, right? Jason Farley, who we’re going to have as our family camp speaker this year, listened to a sermon by him on Ephesians 5, and he describes it as submission. There’s a mission and submission submits ourself to that mission.

So the family has a mission, right? That husband and wife develop. But they have a mission. And then the wife is in submission to the mission of the family, being overseen and directed by the husband. Now that’s a way of looking at submission that I think is quite healthy, and I think it’s exactly what this perspective of the perichoretic nature of the Trinity is all about.

The triune God has a mission, and the Son is part of that mission. And there’s a sense in which the Father is only Father because he has the Son. He’s dependent upon the Son. The two ditches that we want to avoid, and that I think a proper understanding of the social nature of the Trinity keeps us away from, again, is thinking that everything is hierarchical. It’s all orders down from the top. And over here, that it’s all egalitarian, and there’s no relationships or structure to the mission.

And in the middle of that is this wonderful truth that God is in mission repairing the world. And he does that through the social fellowship that exists in the context of the Trinity. And by bringing us into those relationships that we might have those relationships in our families, in our friendships, in the church, and that this might bring the world itself to wholeness once again.

Let’s pray. Father, we pray that you would bless us, Lord God, with a continuing knowledge of who you are. We thank you for the revelation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—an eternal community. Bless us, Father, as we seek to build this kind of community here at Reformation Covenant. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.