Father's Day 2021 - A Tale Of Two Fathers

Father’s Day 2021

A Tale of Two Fathers

Scriptures: Romans 5:19; John 8:44, 10:10; Second Corinthians 6:18

Good morning New Light – it is good to be home! Happy Father’s Day fathers! This is your day and the message this morning is about fathers. When you read the New Testament there are several instances where Jesus told parables. A parable is a short simple story intended to illustrate a moral or religious lesson. Well this morning I want to tell you a parable. The title of this parable is “A Tale of Two Fathers.”

We all have a good understanding of the word “father.” It is defined in the dictionary as “a man who is the parent of a human being, or a male animal that has produced an offspring.” The dictionary also includes a reference to God being called a Christian’s Father and the title given to those of a religious order. But I want us to think about the definition of a man who is a parent. A father, by definition, is the male of the relationship that provided the sperm necessary to fertilize the female’s egg to produce a child. Physically that is the only role the father plays in the physical development of the child prior to childbirth. And, for some fathers, that is the only role they will ever play in the development of the child – period. And that my friend brings us to this tale of two fathers. One father is good while the other father is not only “not so good” but actually the worst father ever! This message could have been titled “The Worst Father Ever” but I did not want to spend the entirety of the message on this father.

If I were to ask you to name some characteristics of a good father, you would probably list things like caring, compassionate, loving, present, knowledgeable, supportive and protective. He would be someone you could depend on to be there for you when you needed him. He would be there to teach you right from wrong; to celebrate your successes; to pick you up when you fall; to comfort you in your distress. All of these characteristics are indicative of a father who cares about his child. Now what about the characteristics of a bad father? Well, I’m guessing you would say the opposite of what I just said about a good father, and you would be correct. But what if the attributes of a bad father went further than those things? What if this father was so bad that his motivation was to make sure his child was as bad and as broken as him. He did not care one iota about the child or their wellbeing. He did not care that his child did what was right; but he rewarded them for doing what was wrong. This father celebrated the failures of his children – not their successes. Can you imagine a father like this? In this tale of two fathers I want to talk about the bad father – the worst father ever – first so that when you leave here today the last memory you will have will be the qualities of the good father. Now I told you I was going to tell you a parable, but sadly, this is not a parable – this is the truth. It is as true in the natural as it is in the spiritual and it’s the spiritual fathers we will be looking at in this tale of two fathers.

The first father we will examine is the worst one ever. His name is Satan. If you recall Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” The first father we will look at is devious, cunning, and heartless. He does not care about his children. If you are wondering why I say that Satan is a father, I will clear this up in a moment. But what I want you to see first is that, in the beginning, he was not a father. Prior to Adam’s sin he literally and figuratively had no children. But he had many followers – the angels in heaven who rebelled with him against God – but he had no children. Once Adam sinned by rebelling against God, he opened the door for Satan to have children via sin entering into this world. By disobedience many were made sinners and these sinners are referred to as having Satan as their “spiritual” father. Those who accept Christ shift from having Satan as their father to having God as their Father. Let’s see what the Scriptures say about Satan as a father and I think you will agree that he is not the father you would want showing up at your high school graduation or walking you down the aisle when you get married. He is the type of father that no one, other than his most devoted children, would ever claim as “dad.” He is the worst father ever! Let’s start with the eighth chapter of the book of John.