Matthew 28:16-20 Trinity Sunday
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Tucson May 31, 2026
It was a little father-son project—a model airplane. Dad unfolded the instructions, spread them out on the table, then laid out all the pieces to be sure everything was there and easily found for each step. “I don’t need instructions. I know how to do it.” And so, the boy put the wings on the body of the plane. And the tail went on the end. It seemed sort of’ right, but…it was all upside down. “Buddy, the instructions matter.” “I want to do it myself.” He got more and more frustrated as he jammed other pieces into places they weren’t supposed to go. And then…tears. It didn’t look anything like the picture on the box. There is this fierce, independent nature like that in people that insists that we get to decide for ourselves how things are to go when it comes to spiritual things. And so, we build our truth for ourselves, and our world encourages this. We end up with “designer religion.” I have “my truth;” you have yours. This, of course, does not fly with God. Jesus speaks with divine clarity in these words we consider today: There is only one God. He proclaims the only saving truth. And he sends it out through his Church. One God. One Gospel. One Goal. One True God Revealed “Sorry, we didn’t find any results for your search.” That’s the message you’ll get back if you type “Trinity” in the search bar on BibleGateway.com or YouVersion or Bible Hub. If you look for “Trinity” in the concordance in the back of your Bible, you’ll come up empty there too. It’s not a Bible word, but it is a doctrinal word—a word that represents a teaching of the Bible. It means three-in-one, and it is a word that is used to describe what the Bible teaches about God—that he is three “persons,” yet one God. The Bible teaches this in many, many places— some quite clear, like this: Jesus says: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Did you notice what he did there? He says, in the name of. Singular. Not in the “names” of. The disciples were to baptize in the name of God. Who is God? The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. One God. Three distinct “persons.” That’s the word we use to distinguish between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Maybe you’re starting to feel how difficult (even impossible) it is to comprehend or explain this. One God. Three persons. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three gods, but one God.