The Triune God

NIV 2 Corinthians 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Augustine said:  if you deny the Trinity you lose your soul, but if you try to explain it you lose mind.

I (who is seminary trained, which doesn’t really mean anything) will try my best to explain who God is as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, as the one true, living, and Trinitarian God.  Remember one of the targets of the REYouthPastor.com website is to tackle deep theological topics so youth pastors can understand why it is important to teach doctrine to our students. It is our hope to make our youth sermons, youth ministry teachings and lessons more theological and not so topical.  Imagine how cool it would be if youth ministries across the USA started teaching and preaching on the Trinity Doctrine.

The word Trinity was coined by Tertullian in the 1^st century. The Trinity is:  One God who eternally exists as three distinct equal persons, Father, Son, Spirit, who are each fully and equally God.  The Trinitarian God idea is one essence, three persons.

The Trinity isn’t in the Bible, so why do our student need to know about the ancient doctrine of the Trinity?

Trinity Doctrine Development

In the first three centuries, there was much attack on monotheism and Christ’s Deity.  The Trinity correctly explains the heritage of monotheism, the confession of Jesus’ lordship, and the experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Basically there is one God, Jesus is Lord and human, and the Holy Spirit is active and present in our world.

Godhead is…

God is one

God is three

God is diversity

God is unity

Possible analogies for the Trinity:

1. H20 = Ice, water, steam—three modes in which the one chemical formula can appear.
2. Tree = Root, trunk, and branch
3. Egg = yolk, eggwhite, and shell
4. Threeheaded dog = Three heads, one dog

**Remember these analogies are helpful but are majorly flawed.

It seems like Catholics focus on the Father, Evangelicals focus on Jesus, and the Pentecostals focus on the Holy Spirit.  How can our youth ministries become more Trinitarian?

What is the Trinitarian life for a student?

1. Relational

2. Transparent

3. Communal

4. Humble

5. Submissive

6. Joyful

Youth Group Discussion Questions:

Consider the following scriptures: 2 Chr. 15:3, Jer 10:10, John 17:3, 1 Thess. 1:9. What does this tell about the nature of God?

What is the implication of this truth for other religions and gods?

There are many scriptures that declare that the Father( Jn. 6:27, 1 Peter 1:3), the Son (Rom. 9:5, Gal 4:4) and the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4, 2 Cor. 3:16-18) are God. How is this reconciled with the statements of one God through scriptures like Gen. 1:26, 3:22, Is. 6:8?

What does it mean that the Father, Son and Spirit are distinct persons?

How does Matt. 3:16-17 support the distinct personhood of the Father, Son and Spirit?

Why does this matter?

Why is the Trinity an essential doctrine to Christian faith?

Why is it important to understand the nature of God as he has revealed Himself?

How do you relate and pray to God the Father? The Son? The Spirit?

What does a Trinitarian life look like for you personally?

What aspects of the Trinity (community, relationship, submission…etc) are missing from your life?

How is God calling you to worship Him in light of His Trinitarian nature?

God is joyful.  God isn’t this big old bad wolf in the sky waiting for us to mess up.  Why?  In the Trinity there is equality, there is no lying, no disrespect, no secrets, no hiding, no blaming just love!!  Perfect love, intimacy, connection, submission, and adoration!

The Trinity agreed to save us!  God made the world, Jesus agreed to come down, and the Spirit is with us.

© 2010, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

In the next 4 weeks our high school group will be addressing sexuality. One of the teaching topics we will be dialogging about is homosexuality.

I have tried my best in the past 3 weeks to get my hands on any scientific, theological, psychological, and philosophical content that adequately handles the homosexual issue in relation to the Christian faith.

How do we respond to homosexuals that are Evangelical Christians? (and if you do not know any and/or you do not believe that they can be “Christians” you need to expand your theological world view!)

Homosexuality can be broken into two categories: 1) homosexual orientation and 2) homosexual behavior. Homosexual orientation is not a choice. Homosexual behavior is a choice.
Although this raises the question of: How can God simply deprive a homosexual from his sexual and emotional expressions? ( I am still grappling through this question.)

Homosexual Evangelical Christians are torn not only between their sexual orientation and traditional biblical interpretations, but also between the homosexual community. I have found that Evangelical homosexual Christians can act in celibacy while acknowledging their sexual orientation.

The funny thing is that Jesus never condemns homosexuality. Jesus only condemns the judgmental religious people who look for sin in the lives of others without dealing with the sin in their own lives (Matthew 23). hmmmm….sound familiar to a brand of Christianity?
Jesus responds with love, respect, and dignity to everyone.

The Torah illustrates that homosexuality is wrong (Lev 18.22, 20.13, & Deut. 23 17-18). It is the Torah’s goal to clearly define the moral code (10 commandments) and purity code (eating shell fish, sexual behaviors, etc).

The Pauline perspective talks a bit about homosexuality and immoral sexual acts (1 Tim 1.10-11, 1 Cor 6.9, and Romans 1.26-27).

I argue that God designed human sexuality to be expressed only within the loving bounds of a monogamous, heterosexual marriage relationship. However in reference to the homosexual issue: I recognize the consistent biblical teaching that homosexual relationships are not a part of God’s design for humanity. Homosexual expression is not a viable lifestyle for believers. At the same time, I do not believe it is biblical to elevate any particular sin above the other, and it is essential to provide a redemptive, healing, experiential, and safe community for those who struggle with any thing: same sex attraction, anger, self image, depression, identity, and the list can go on and on.

My question to you is: Can homosexuals enter the pearly gates? Can one honestly say Jesus will not let a homosexual in? Based on your answers, what are the implications for the 21st century church in how we respond to homosexuals who are in church?

I have a hard time saying that Steve, who is struggling with his homosexual identity, will not get the nod into the gates, while me, Jeremy, who is deeply struggling with an anger issue, will get the nod into the pearly gates.  Thankfully, I don’t have to play God.  I will leave the judgment up to God.

I would love to hear any perspective and feedback. If you disagree with me, I will beat you up. ; )

© 2009, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

Youth Ministry teaching topic of:  Hell

Hell is an essential topic to teach to our youth.

Last Tuesday night, our High School ministry had a conversation about the doctrine of Hell. It was really interesting to hear their perspective on what they think Hell would be like.

I framed this Hell conversation in six parts: 1) Where do we go after we die?, 2) Where is Hell in the Bible?, 3) What will Hell be like?, 4) Who chooses Hell?, 5) Do all non-Christians go to Hell?, 6) How would an all-loving God torture people in an eternal Hell?

I attempted to argue that there is no salvation outside of Jesus. Jesus judges people by their heart. People do not go to Hell by accident. Hell is a very bad place and God does not put people in Hell, people put themselves in Hell. It is not for us to understand it or explain it but rather avoid it.

Also, I outlined the four perspective of Hell.
1) John Walvoord argues that it is a literal place of smoke and flames.

2) William Crockett defends a metaphorical view, punishment but not necessarily literal fire. (This is the view I support. If one takes the literal interpretation of the lakes of fire, darkness, and pits, there is a sense of contradiction. How can Hell be dark while having a lake of eternal fire???)

3) Clark Pinnock presents conditional immortality – punishment but not forever. God puts them out of their misery.

4) Zachary Hayes explains the concept of purgatory.

I left with this thought: If Jesus willingly died for us to avoid Hell, Hell must be one terrifying experience!

© 2009, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

According to JI Packer, a study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness.

In this post I will deal with these questions:

1.  How do we maintain a strong commitment to evangelism, without having to scare people?

2. Love has multiple meanings so how do we effectively communicate the true essence of God’s character?

3. How often during the past year did you talk about the wrath of God?

Finally, what are the standards for when youth pastors want to talk about the Wrath of God:

1.  Adopt the Oreo cookie approach.

When having the wrath of God conversation it is imperative you have a solid and honest relationship with the students and you are demonstrating love and compassion.  Essentially be incarnational.  When God gives you the opportunity start by affirming —> then deliver the wrath of God punch  —> and follow up with gentleness. The white filling represents the wrath of God part.  When having hard conversations always think Oreo cookie.  Two compliments and one complaint.

2. 60/40. 

60% of your youth ministry should be bathed in grace, love, forgiveness, while the other 40% embrace rebuking and repenting.  Youth pastors need to remember that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance.

3.  The Wrath of God is one of the attributes of God.

The wrath of God is not THE ONLY attribute of God’s character, it is one of the many.  Jonathan Edwards’s has a famous sermon titled:  “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”.  Bottom line:  the wrath of God talk should be one of the many talks we convey to the youth.

4. We need to remember that there is more to God’s message than ONLY receiving our fire proof insurance card.

5.  The wrath of God motivates students to live a right and pure life.

Psalm 119:71 ⁷¹ It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.  We worship a God of Justice who likes to kick butt.  If we are being lazy, unmotivated, complacent, and lukewarm we are becoming comfortable.  Paul talks about how we need to work our faith with fear and trembling.  Bottom line we need to be doing stuff.  Faith without works is dead.

I think youth pastors need to have a healthy value of presenting other God attributes to our students.  Honestly, I think our 21st century postmodern students have the love, grace, and compassionate thing down real well.

My only hope is that youth pastors talk about the wrath of God every once in a while.  It is problematic if youth pastors are ignoring the wrath of God talk because of their insecurities and jadedness.  It may be kind of healthy if students get their butt kicked every once in a while.  : )

© 2009, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

It is imperative youth ministries and youth pastors engage the realities of the last week of Jesus.

Simply by reading the last week of Jesus’ life while simultaneously watching it, helps teenagers to visualize and contextualize what Jesus went through.

I would highly recommend the book:  The Last Week of Jesus by Marcus Borg and John Crossan.

This exercise produces a high experiential and learning environment.  This lesson is a great teaching for youth of all ages to learn about the Easter season.

If you need a different and highly visual activity to remember what Christ done for us, feel free to download this Easter/Last Week of Jesus youth ministry lesson by clicking the Last Week of Jesus Experience picture.

© 2009, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.