How Jesus Talked About His Father

HOW JESUS TALKED ABOUT HIS FATHER

DORN RIDGE CHURCH OF CHRIST

JUNE 15, 2014

INTRODUCTION:

1.) Today is that special day we mark on the calendars to pay tribute to our fathers and grandfathers.

A.) There are many ways we like to honour and/or remember our fathers and grandfathers.

B.) Some of us here are on Facebook. If you have been on in the last couple of days you will have seen many pictures and memories being shared with the world of fathers and grandfathers.

C.) Today if your father is living many will be buying gifts, giving cards, going for special dinners, or other such actions to honour your fathers and grandfathers.

D.) There are also many who no longer have their fathers living, but honour them with memories, visits to grave yards, memorial gifts, and just the sharing of happy and wonderful memories.

E.) Today as we look at Jesus, we see another way of honouring our father which he did, and many here also do, and that is to talk about our fathers with great love.

ea.) Today I want us to look at four aspects of conversation that Jesus gave to honour his heavenly Father:

I. JESUS SPOKE ABOUT HIS FATHER'S HOUSE.

1.) Jesus spoke of the temple as God’s House.

A.) Luke 2:48-50

aa.) I expect that Jesus’ mother and stepfather Joseph had no idea immediately what Jesus was speaking of.

aaa.) In fact even the Scriptures themselves verify that.

aab.) At that time their only thought was to find their son and get home safe and sound..

aac.) Certainly any of us as parents can imagine the panic and fear that Mary and Joseph must have had that day.

.01) At one time or another each of us like Joseph and Mary have lost our children in a mall or some other place for a few minutes.

.02) As you recall the anxiety and fear in just that short period of time, imagine what these parents felt when their son disappeared and went missing and somewhere in the big city alone for three days.

.03.) Mary and Joseph had done right though in their raising of Jesus, and he felt perfectly at home in the temple of God, and described that as his Father’s House.

ab.) Certainly I do not want to cheapen this account or the very unique and special relationship that Jesus had with the Father.

aba.) But as parents it is a great blessing to have our own children raised in such a way that they will look at the time in Church and with God’s people as a special place, and a special time with their

Father in Heaven as well.

B.) Jesus later used this same term at the beginning and end of his ministry when he cleansed the temple.

ba.) John 2: 13-17

C.) I imagine that at the beginning and end of Jesus’ ministry as he spoke of the temple as his father’s house, that many of those religious leaders were not altogether sure of the words Jesus gave.

ca.) Many of them may have had confusion at his words.

cb.) I am sure some had great anger at the very nerve of speaking of God as His heavenly Father.

cc.) There were some who would have missed the importance of the event, and had anger that he would show authority in the temple though he was not of the tribe of Levi.

D.) But if we can look past all of those things we also see something very dear that any father wants to have.

da.) Jesus showed great love, honour, and respect for his Father in heaven.

db.) That kind of an attitude for God can often not be seen if it is not also there for one’s earthly father as well.

dba.) The relationship we have with our earthly father, often gives us a perspective and vision of the relationship with our heavenly father.

dbb.) Sometimes we do not always realize the role we have as a Father, in the molding of our children for spiritual matters.

dbc.) yet more and more new studies point to the power of the influence that the Father has in the family, and also in spiritual matters as well.

2.) Jesus spoke of heaven as his Father’s house.

A.) John 14:1-3

B.) Up to this point the concept of heaven was very vague.

ba.) In fact, even today though Scripture reveals a few glimpses of heaven, the beauty, and greatness of it is mostly unrevealed to us.

bb.) But one of the truths that is revealed of heaven is that Jesus pictured it as home.

bba.) That is an image that strikes the heart of most of us with emotion.

.01) Home to most people is a place where you are loved, and comfortable, and able to rejoice in your family.