Sunday Morning Greek Blog

May 31, 2026

The Trinity in Creation (Genesis 1:1–3; John 1:1–5; Matthew 28:16–20)

Filed under: Christology,Chronology,Creation,Genesis,John Gospel of,Matthew Gospel of,Pentecost,Pneumatology,Psalms,Trinity — Scott Stocking @ 9:58 pm
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I preached this message at Mount View Presbyterian Church on Trinity Sunday (First Sunday after Pentecost), May 31, 2026. I lay out how the Trinity is revealed in the first three verses of Genesis 1.

Good morning! The Lord be with you!

In our Old Testament reading this morning, the first couple verses of Psalm 8 say this:

1 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory in the heavens.

2 Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. [1]

Consider the story of the walls of Jericho, which the Jews Jews destroyed by marching around the city, blowing their trumpets, and lifting up a mighty shout of praise. We also have the story of Jehoshaphat, who put the male choir out in front of the army to sing praises to God as they marched out to war. God is the true King, and when we put him first, good things can happen. Psalm 22:3 in the English Standard Version says, “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.”[2] If you’re used to the King James Version, that verse is translated, “Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”[3]

This demonstrates the point that our praise is mighty and effective against evil because the God who dwells in that praise as it goes forth from our lips and our lives is mighty. This is God Almighty, God the Father, God the King, the creator of all that is made, even life itself; the giver of breath; the author of wisdom and truth.

We see the might, power, and even the orderliness of God in the creation narrative, for example. But we find much more than that if we consider the broader context of Scripture.

In Genesis 1:1, of course, we have the well known statement: “In the beginning, God (אֱלֹהִים ʾělō·hîm) created the heavens and the earth.” The Bible begins with the assumption that God exists. That fact in and of itself has been the source of many questions and debates, the most popular perhaps being “Where did God come from?”

By faith, we who are Christ-followers believe what God has said about himself, that he is eternal and has never not been. For most believers, that’s not subject to debate.

Then there is the question of what vs. 1 means. Is it simply an introduction to the first chapters of Genesis telling us what God is about to do on the “formless and void” earth, or does it describe God creating the earth itself. Did he speak and fully formed planet appear? Was there some sort of “big bang”-like event that scattered material across the expanse of the universe providing the raw materials for earth? Did God create an iron core and place it somewhere where it would attract raw material and gases floating in space and eventually coalesce into a planet that was “formless and void”? How long did all that take? You can see these are not easy questions to answer, because the earth was already there when he began creating on it!

If that’s not challenging enough, we go on and read verse 2 and find out “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Wait, “the Spirit (רוּחַ rûaḥ) of God”? We haven’t even got an answer to where God came from and they’ve already mentioned the Spirit of God? The word is the typical Hebrew word for “Spirit” that we would expect, but it could also be translated “wind” or “breath.” However, the New Revised Standard Version is the only English version that translates it as “wind”: “A wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” But the overwhelming consensus among translators is that this refers to the Holy Spirit.

Verse 3 is the beginning of God’s creative work of preparing the “formless and void” rock called Earth for life. This happens on the “first day,” so again it should go without saying that the Earth was already there. But on the first day, God doesn’t create anything on the earth. He creates something to illuminate the earth: light. Or should I say Light. What is unusual here is that we’re never told the source of the light. The sources of light in the heavens (the sun, the stars, the moon) aren’t created until Day Four.

So what is this Light? We get some hints in the Old Testament, especially with a couple direct references to God himself being a source of light.

Psalm 104:2–3 says:

2 The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent 3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.[4]

Daniel 2:22 says:

22 He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.[5]

Numerous other Scriptures use “light” to describe God in a more personal relationship with his people. “The Lord is my light and salvation” (Psalm 27:1; cf. Micah 7:8); “The light of Israel” (Isaiah 10:17); “Let the light of your face shine upon us” (Psalm 4:7 et passim) are all examples of this. We can find many other examples of “light” being used in a number of different ways with respect to God, too numerous to mention here.

But let’s go back to Daniel 2:22. “Some Jewish commentators also cite Dan 2:22 as evidence that “Light” is one of the Messiah’s names.”[6] Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”[7] Hmmm, where else have heard something about “light” and “God’s word”? Could it be in the New Testament?

Listen to John 1:1–5:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”[8]

Even to the casual observer, then, it seems obvious that John is connecting Jesus to Genesis 1, especially 1:3. Jesus is the “Light” that God “created” when he said “Let there be light.” Jesus is the light in several respects: He is the revelation of God’s character in every way. Just like God and the Spirit were already present at creation, so was Jesus. “Let there be Light” is more of a declaration about Jesus as the third person of the trinity.

That’s right. The trinity of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three manifestations of the Godhead perfectly united, is mentioned in the first three verses of the Bible. Lest there be any doubt, we should mention Abram’s  encounter with Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18–20 and how the author of Hebrews interprets that in relation to Jesus:

18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.

20 And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.”

Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.[9]

Hebrews 7:3 describes Melchizedek as: “3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.”[10] All throughout the early chapters of Genesis, we see God revealing himself to individuals, but up until chapter 14, we have no mention of any kind of priest. All of the sudden, Melchizedek appears, seemingly out of nowhere. The text tells us he is the king of Salem, probably the early settlement of Jerusalem, and that “King of Salem” means “King of Peace.” The name Melchizedek itself means “King of Righteousness.”

We have some evidence, then, that there were early followers of “God Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן אֵל ʾēl ʿěl·yôn) in the region. Is Melchizedek, then, the preincarnate Christ if indeed he has no genealogy in Genesis, unlike every other Hebrew person mentioned in Genesis? You’d think we’d have some story of how someone came to be a priest of the Most High God, but we know nothing of his origins. Why do we have a story about God calling Abram to be the progenitor of the line from which the Messiah would be born, but not one about the first priest? Keep in mind that we know Abram’s ancestors from Genesis, but we really don’t know how he came to be separated from the community in Salem where Melchizedek served. I think the Bible intentional leaves that a bit of a mystery for us, as a figure completely independent of Abram’s line validates that the worship of the Most High God is an established practice already when Abram is called.

I think it’s probably going too far to assume that the early Hebrews in Genesis had a fully formed doctrine of the trinity. However, the seeds are planted there to bring that concept to fruition. Even the creation story itself seems to reflect this “three-in-one” concept in more ways then one. Creation takes place in six days broken up into two sets of three: On days One through Three, God creates the environment to support life (light, water, land and vegetation), then on days Four through Six, he creates the inhabitants of the respective environments (sun, moon, and stars; fish and sea creatures; and land animals and critters and mankind).

In Deuteronomy 6:5, Moses exhorts the Israelites to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”[11] This reflects the trinitarian nature of our own being: The heart is our emotional connection to God and others; the soul is the eternal nature that God places in us, not only our spiritual connection, but also the personality traits that are in some sense innate to our being; and our strength is our body, which will be resurrected in the last days.

As with Pentecost’s call to evangelism, so too our Gospel reading has a similar call founded in the trinity. In fact, it was probably the basis for how Peter closes out his sermon in Acts 2: “19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”[12]

On this Trinity Sunday, then, let us give praise and thanks for God, the three-in-one, who through Jesus—the priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, the one who has both the fullness of God and has experienced the fullness of the human form in his incarnation, the one who died to pay the price for our sins and rose from the dead to secure our hope for salvation and perfection in heaven—has fashioned us in his image so that we might more fully know God and the blessings he has for us both here on earth and in the heavenly realms. Go forth and share the good news. Amen.

Pastor Scott Stocking, M.Div.

My opinions are my own.

[1] Psalm 8:1–2. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] Psalm 22:3. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2016. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[3] Psalm 22:3. The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2009. Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[4] Psalm 104:2–3. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] Daniel 2:22. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[6] Martin J. Selman. אוֹר ʾôr. In VanGemeren, Willem, ed. 1997. In New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis, 1:325. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[7] Psalm 119:105. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[8] John 1:1–5. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[9] Genesis 14:18–20. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[10] Hebrews 7:3. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[11] Deuteronomy 6:5.  The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[12] Matthew 28:19. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

May 24, 2026

Pentecost’s “Harvest”: Acts 2:1–21

Filed under: Acts,Evangelism,Joel,Pentecost,Romans,Spiritual Warfare,Tongues — Scott Stocking @ 3:12 pm
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The Lord be with you! Happy Birthday to the Body of Christ!

The festival known as “Pentecost” in the New Testament is as old as the Mosaic Law itself, having been established in the first few chapters of Exodus after Moses received the Ten Commandments. Yet you can’t find that name in the Old Testament, not even in the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. Pentecost simply means “50 days,” in the Christian context, that’s 50 days after Easter (Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is considered “Day 1,” so subsequent Sundays are a multiple of 7 plus 1 in the day count[1]).

When it was established, it anticipated Israel being settled in the Promised Land, but of course it took them 40 years to get to that goal. In Exodus, what became Pentecost was originally the “Festival of Weeks” or “Festival of Harvest.” It occurred 50 days from the Sabbath of the Passover week. The Jews considered it a sacred day, a Sabbath if you will, and was one of the three festivals in the year where men had to appear before the Lord at the Tabernacle/Temple.

Even though the Greek New Testament uses the term πεντηκοστή pentēkostē, some English-speaking Christian traditions as early as the 12th century called it “Whitsunday,” for the white robes new converts wore after being baptized on that Sunday. It was common for the churches in the Middle Ages to set aside sacred days like Easter and Pentecost for confirming young communicants or recognizing those who completed the catechism and were baptized.

The name Pentecost, then, seems to blur what might otherwise be an obvious connection between what the festival represents historically and what Jesus said about his own ministry, why it makes the day of Pentecost that much more significant for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the church. What did Jesus say about the harvest? Maybe you’ve already made the connection to John 4:35: “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”[2] Jesus had said much about the harvest, usually in connection with the end times, but in Acts 2, the harvest theme seems to be in the background.

In Joel chapter 2, in the verses leading up to the passage Peter quotes at the end of our NT reading this morning, the prophet speaks of God’s blessings in terms of a complete harvest:

21 Do not be afraid, land of Judah;

be glad and rejoice.

Surely the Lord has done great things!

22 Do not be afraid, you wild animals,

for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.

The trees are bearing their fruit;

the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.

23Be glad, people of Zion,

rejoice in the Lord your God,

for he has given you the autumn rains

because he is faithful.

He sends you abundant showers,

both autumn and spring rains, as before.

24The threshing floors will be filled with grain;

the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. [3]

In light of this background, then, let’s look at Acts 2 more closely. When the 120 or so initial followers of Jesus[4] gathered on the day of Pentecost, I’m convinced they had absolutely no clue what was about to happen. They simply gathered because Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem. They were likely continuing to evangelize in Jerusalem, and the large crowd present for Pentecost (remember, a required feast for men to present themselves) was wondering about the gathering of the Jerusalem-based believers would bring about.

It’s not clear where they were gathered at. Chapter 1 says they had been staying at a house. Verse 2 suggests they are still in the house, so it must have been a very large place in a location near the heart of the city where many others could gather. The text tells us the sound of the wind was so powerful that people heard it from a few blocks away. They began to gather around the house and they begin to recognize they’re hearing the praises of God being spoken in their own language.

It’s significant here that the miracle is in the speaking and not the hearing. God-fearing Jews from all over the world at this event, and each one is getting the seed of the Gospel and the outpouring of the Spirit in their own language so they can take that message back to their own people. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that some of those who were empowered to speak in other languages, perhaps a language they had never learned or had limited exposure may have also been commissioned to be a missionary to those people. That’s essentially what the purpose is of the gift of tongues. It’s not a personal prayer language; it’s a gift to help spread the gospel to people and places distant from Jerusalem.

The place names mentioned are most likely not exhaustive. The area covered is immense, from Persia to Rome east to west, and from northern Turkey to Arabia north to south. Within one generation, the gospel will have spread through the eastern Mediterranean region and the entire Middle East. There is no discrimination based on race, gender, or language. God’s blessing is no longer solely upon the Jews. Let’s break down the quote from Joel.

We saw leading up to Christmas that Jesus made a point of showing his ministry was not just to the Jews exclusively but to the Gentiles as well. We see this in the rest of the book of Acts along with the 13 letters Paul would eventually write to the young churches. Not only that, but we see it in the interaction among the churches, especially when some of the churches in southern Europe provided support for the church in Jerusalem.

Sons and daughters will prophesy. Prophecy is not necessarily proclaiming the future, although we see hints of that in the book of Acts. Prophecy is at its most basic level is proclaiming the Word of God. We see plenty of that coming from folks who aren’t part of the inner circle. Priscilla and Aquila; Apollos; Timothy; Phoebe and many of the others mentioned at the end of Romans; and the list goes on.

Stories of signs and wonders have perpetuated throughout history. Constantine converted the Roman Empire to Christianity because he claimed to see a cross in the clouds and took that as divine appointment for his kingship. The Catholic Church claims to have validated several miracles, like the Lady of Fátima in Portugal in 1917.

However most of these “signs and wonders” seem to refer what will happen in the end times, as next verse refers to “the great and glorious day of the Lord.” Even as the church is being formed in its infancy here, the prophetic pronouncement of Peter here looks forward to the end of time. God wants to make sure the faith grows and that the whole world has the chance to hear the gospel eventually. The recent talk of revival breaking out is proof that the church is still fighting the good fight to get the gospel message out.

So the harvest that began on that first Pentecost after the resurrection is still going on even today. The promise of Joel, as affirmed by Peter, still holds true today as well: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And this missionary call still applies to us as well.

In Romans 10, Paul says this:

9If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”l 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”p

14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[5]

You and I are called to help bring unbelievers into the harvest. Just as we can love others because he first loved us, so we can call others to God because God has called us to him. In fact, other than laying our life down for someone else, there is no greater love we can show to our fellow man than inviting them to join you on your walk with the Lord, to join the fellowship of the faithful.

The early church grew rapidly in the first few years after this event, and the church has continued to grow in certain cycles. In a culture that is hostile to Christianity, we shouldn’t be surprised to find that people are in fact coming back to church in greater numbers. In places like China where the church continues to operate underground for the most part, the number of believers continues to grow.

As we celebrate the birthday of the kingdom, let us also recommit ourselves to sharing the good news with those in our lives. We may feel like the culture is against us, but we have a God who is bigger than our culture. We may feel like world events are too much to handle, we have a God who is still in control. We have God who’s promised that as the church advances against the gates of hell, hell’s gates cannot withstand the onslaught. We know that we win in the end in the great and gloriously day of the Lord. Let us live in that victory even now. Amen.

Pastor Scott Stocking, M.Div.

My opinions are my own.

Not created with AI.

[1] For an in-depth excursus on how the Jews counted days, see my article Counting the Days: Acts 10 and Jewish Time References | Sunday Morning Greek Blog.

[2] John 4:35. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[3] Joel 2:21–24. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] Acts 1:15. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] Romans 10:9–15. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

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