Trinity and Humanity

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Scripture: Revelation 4

Summary:

In this deeply hope-filled Gospel message for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Pastor Timothy Brassell proclaims the astonishing good news that humanity has not been abandoned by God, but is being drawn by the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit back into the communion for which we were created. Revelation is not ultimately about fear, speculation, or escape, but about the unveiling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit revealed in Jesus Christ. Revelation 4 becomes a vision of reality as it truly is: all creation gathered around the throne of God, restored to worship, communion, freedom, and life in His love.

At the center of this message is the truth that God’s very being is love. The Father sends the Son in the communion of the Holy Spirit to bring humanity back into fellowship with Himself. The Gospel announced in Revelation is not moral improvement, religious performance, or self-help, but the overwhelming good news that, through Jesus Christ, humanity is being drawn back into the life and love of the living God. The cost of that adoption was nothing less than the incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son Himself.

As Karl Barth writes:

“The doctrine of election is the sum of the Gospel because of all words that can be said or heard it is the best: that God elects man; that God is for man too the One who loves in freedom.”— Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics II/2

Again and again, this message calls the Church to return to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the true center of all worship, Scripture, life, and reality itself. Revelation is not merely revealing events, it is revealing Jesus Christ as the center of all things. The Church weakens whenever it becomes centered on programs, experiences, numbers, moralism, or self-help rather than the living God revealed in Jesus Christ.

The sermon also exposes the modern tendency toward what Pastor Tim describes as “moral therapeutic deism,” where God becomes distant, Christianity becomes self-improvement, and faith becomes more about personal happiness than communion with the living God. But Revelation calls us back to reality itself: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit stand at the center of all creation, all history, and all true life.

Pastor Tim also reminds us that Scripture is not primarily information to master, but the place where the living God meets His people. The great question when reading the Bible is not first “what?” or “why?” but “Who?” — Whose book is this? Scripture is the witness through which the Father speaks through the Son in the Holy Spirit to restore our vision and draw us deeper into communion with Him.

And this communion is not abstract. God is not distant from His creation, but actively drawing humanity into His life and love. As Robert Barron writes:

“In his passion to set right a disjointed universe, God broke open his own heart in love. The Father sent into the dysfunction of the world, not simply a representative, spokesman, or plenipotentiary, but his own Son, so that he might gather that world into the bliss of the divine life.”— Robert Barron

This is the freedom Revelation proclaims: not autonomy or self-rule, but the freedom of allowing ourselves to be loved by God and, in that love, learning to love Him in return. Pastor Tim repeatedly calls us to stop resisting the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and instead participate by grace in the life already accomplished for humanity in Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus Christ is risen and reigns even now, Revelation 4 is not a vision of chaos triumphing, but of all creation healed, reconciled, and gathered around the throne crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are drawing humanity and all creation into the joy, peace, communion, and worship for which we were made.

Reflective Moment:

What if the deepest problem in our lives is not simply stress, fear, distraction, or even sin itself, but that we have become disconnected from the living communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Revelation calls us to lift our eyes again to Jesus Christ, the true center of all reality. Where have you been seeking life, meaning, or freedom apart from Him? And what might it look like today to simply allow yourself to be loved by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit?