Our Father

Our Father

06/21/09 AM

Text: Psalm 89:26

Introduction

Today is Father’s day so first let me say Happy Father’s Day to all the dads here this morning. Although it seems that we’ve always been celebrating Dad’s day it is a still a bit of a new comer as an observed holiday.

Most sources credit the conception of Father’s day to Ms. Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington, whose own dad, Civil War veteran William Smart, raised six children on his own after his wife died in childbirth. During a Mother’s day sermon in 1909 Sonora had the thought “Why not a day to honor my father and men like him?”

The first Father's Day was held on 19 June 1910, the day chosen because it was the birthday of William Smart. Although many congressional resolutions proclaiming a national Father’s Day were introduced through the years, the holiday was made official in 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed a presidential resolution that declared Father’s Day as the third Sunday in June. Today as many as 52 countries now observe this day as a tribute to dad and although this day ranks fourth in total greeting card sales (just behind Mother’s day) it still holds the honor as the day with the highest volume of collect calls.

So in keeping with the day, I’d like us to consider not a father in scripture but the Father of scripture and the Father of all who believe; our Father in heaven.

I. Our Father Revealed in the Old Testament

A. In the beginning...

1. The first verse of the bible introduces us to our God, the creator of all things, the provider of all good things.

a. Much of the Old Testament is written to reveal God to us, so that we might know him and it is scripture which tells us He is our Father.

God states the words David will say concerning Him:

Psalms 89:26 (NASB) “He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’

The words of the prophet Isaiah while entreating God:

Isaiah 63:16 (NASB) “For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us And Israel does not recognize us. You, O LORD, are our Father, Our Redeemer from of old is Your name.”

B. Our Father but distant from us

1. In the Old Testament, we can read how God revealed himself to Abraham, to Moses, and to Elijah.

a. These Bible accounts contain awesome, fantastic pictures of God. But they also reveal a God quite distant from a sinful people.

This is a God that is high, far-removed, and nearly unapproachable.

When they saw God revealed, the sight was so fearsome that Abraham fell down to the earth in a deep sleep, Moses hid his face, and Elijah covered his face with his coat.

God was so removed from His people that only one man, the High priest, could come into the Lord’s most holy place, and then only once a year.

It took the Son of God to bring us close to our Father.

II. Our Father Revealed in the Son

A. The Son of God, a man named Jesus, was born in a village named Bethlehem.

1. This Jesus came with a very special purpose — to reveal God in a way no one else had ever done. To reveal God as He really wants us to know him. To reveal God as Father we needed His son.

The God who revealed Himself to Abraham, Moses, and Elijah was now revealed more clearly:

a. Jesus says God is our Heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:48)

Jesus told us how to pray to our Father in heaven (Matthew 6:9-13).

Jesus told us that our Father knows what we need before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8, 32).

2. Jesus tells us how we are to be like our Heavenly Father in our conduct (perfect as He is perfect, Loving as He loves, Forgiving as He forgives) and gives us Himself as example.

(John 14:9 “…He who has seen Me has seen the Father…)

But as important as revealing the Father more clearly to us was of greater importance was showing us how to become His children.

III. How do we become His children?

The Bible tells us much about the Father, but it shows us something even more powerful:

"But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13, RSV).

A. One place we can look is the book of John.

1. John is the "book of the Father", because it contains more references to God as Father than any other book in the Bible (111 times!)