WHAT’S IN A NAME?: HE IS THE EVERLASTING FATHER!
--Isaiah 9:6
The highest honour a nation can bestow upon one of her sons is to name him “The Father of his country.” This is a title given to heroes as far back in history as the Roman Empire. “When a Roman citizen had done some brave, beautiful deed of infinite value and of noble self-denial, while soldiers raised him on their shields and maidens threw garlands of flowers at his feet, the populace would hail him in their shouts and songs as Pater Patriae—Father of his country.” [SOURCE: Herbert Lockyer, All the Divine Names and Titles in the Bible: A Unique Classification of All Scriptural Designations of the Three Persons of the Trinity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1975), 148.]
In America that title belongs to General George Washington, Supreme Commander of the Army of the Potomac and first President of the United States of America. In similar fashion Jesus Christ may be considered as the “Father of His Country.” His country is heaven and all the vast extents of the universe He created. If our nation gives the highest respect and honour to George Washington, certainly we Christians can do no less for our Lord Jesus Christ in regards to His kingdom.
The fourth name Isaiah gives the promised Messiah is “The Everlasting Father.” I have never had any difficulty calling God my Father, but many people do. I have nothing but pleasant memories of my earthly Father. He set a good example for me; Dad never drank or smoked; he was a good provider for Mom and me; he was always kind and considerate; everyone respected him, and he set a good example of a Christian gentleman for me to follow.
That’s not always true of every father or of every parent regardless of his or her gender. Because of the rampant increase in child abuse by many parents, it is often hard for victims of such abuse to relate to God as their Father. I can not understand how any parent can cause bodily harm to their child, but it is even becoming more common for mothers to be the perpetrators. We all were horrified in June 2001 when Texas Mother Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the bathtub. On November 14, 2006, in Elkhart, Indiana, Angelica Salazar Alvarez took the lives of her four small children between the ages of two and six.
Faced with situations like these, many neglected and abused children have a difficult time relating to our Messiah and Lord as the Everlasting Father. Human parents may hurt and disappoint us beyond all measure, but we can always depend upon our Everlasting Father. He will never leave us or let us down. Psalm 27:10 testifies:
If my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will take me up.
We can always depend on our Everlasting Father to care for us. He will never forsake or harm us; He will always lift us up. Like Peter in I Peter 5:7, we too can “Cast all our anxiety on Him, because He cares for us.” That is one of the great ministries of any good father, to care for his children in their times of anxiety, uncertainty, or fear.
“What’s in a Name?” Jesus, our Messiah, is our Everlasting Father. Some of you may question, “But, Preacher, I thought this Name applies to God the Father, not God the Son.” Recall our Lord’s own personal testimony in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” This is just one of the 363 Divine Names or Titles given to our Lord Jesus in the Holy Scriptures. It is a declaration of how much He loves and protects us as His children, His flock.
The Baby born in Bethlehem’s Manger is our “Everlasting Father.” Everlasting means “eternal, forever.” When this term is applied to God, it is always a declaration of His faithfulness, His trustworthiness, His goodness, His love and His mercy. The Prophet Jeremiah testifies to our Lord’s eternal faithfulness, trustworthiness, goodness, love and mercy in Lamentations 3:22-26. Jerusalem has fallen into the hands of the Babylonians, the Temple has been looted and destroyed, and the people are grieving in captivity, but their Everlasting Father has neither forgotten nor deserted them.
Jeremiah praises our Everlasting Father for His faithfulness to us no matter what our trials, tribulations, or hardships may be: “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” This passage is the basis for Thomas Chisholm’s beloved hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” which will be our “Hymn of Invitation” this morning.
“Great Is thy Faithfulness” is not the result of some tragic event in Thomas Chisholm’s life but a powerful witness to his daily walk with Jesus as he experienced “morning by morning” new mercies from His Everlasting Father. Pastor Chisholm always trusted his Everlasting Father to take care of Him, sustain him, and provide for his daily needs. Just before his death in 1960 he wrote this power, personal witness:
My income has never been large at any time due to
impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me
on until now. But I must not fail to record here the
unfailing faithfulness of a covenant keeping God and that He
has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care
which have filled me with astonishing gratefulness.”
[SOURCE: Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366
Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions (Grand Rapids:
Kregel Publications, 1990), 348.]
You and I can depend on our Everlasting Father who was always faithful to Jeremiah and the Jewish captives in Babylon and to Thomas Chrisholm to be faithful to us in every situation we face in life.
The contemporary Christian composer and artist Chris Tomlin’s song “Forever” is right on target in praising our Everlasting Father for His goodness, faithfulness, love, and mercy:
Give thanks to the Lord
Our God and King
His love endures forever.
For He is good, He is above all things
His love endures forever.
From the rising to the setting sun
His love endures forever.
By the grace of God
We will carry on
His love endures forever.
Sing praise, sing praise.
Sing praise, sing praise.
Yeah!
Forever God is faithful
Forever God is strong
Forever God is with us
Forever
Forever.
Our Everlasting Father Himself reminds us vividly in Matthew 6:28-30 that He will care for and supply all our needs: “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” This is how much He cares for you and me.
I am neither a liberal theologian nor a feminist believing that God is both Father and Mother to us, but many of the finest traits of motherhood we find in Him who is our Everlasting Father. Jesus, our Everlasting Father, uses the imagery of a mother hen in describing his desire to care for the children of Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
“The forest fire had been brought under control, and the group of firefighters was working back through the devastation making sure all the hot spots had been extinguished. As they marched across the blackened landscape between the wisps of smoke still rising from the smoldering remains, a large lump on the trail caught a firefighter’s eye.
“As he got closer he noticed it was the charred remains of a large bird that had burned nearly half way through. Since birds can so easily fly away from the approaching flames, the firefighter wondered what must have been wrong with this bird that it could not escape.
“Arriving at the carcass, he decided to kick it off the trail with his boot. As soon as he did, however, he was startled half to death by a flurry of activity around his feet. Four little birds flailed in the dust and ash then scurried away down the hillside.
“The bulk of the mother’s body had covered them from the searing flames. Though the heat was enough to consume her, it allowed he babies to find safety underneath. In the face of the rising flames, she had stayed with her young. She was their only hope for safety, and willing to risk her own life she gathered them under her body and covered them with herself. Even when the pain reached its most unbearable moment, when she could easily have flown away to start another family on another day, she made herself stay through the raging flames.
“Her dead carcass and her fleeing chicks told the story well enough—she gave the ultimate sacrifice to save her young.” [SOURCE: http://lifestream.org/LSBL.
Nov99.html]
Our Everlasting Father longs to “gather us together, as a hen gather her chicks under her wings,” but we must be willing to let him do so. He will protect, care for, and keep us, because He is forever faithful; and, like that mother bird, He paid the ultimate sacrifice on the cross to save us from eternal destruction.
Scott Wesley Brown affirms the faithfulness of our Everlasting Father so well in his contemporary praise song “He Will Carry You”:
There is no problem too big He cannot solve it:
There is no mountain too tall He cannot move it.
There is no storm too dark God cannot calm it:
There is no sorrow too deep He cannot soothe it.
If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders,
I know, my brother, that He will carry you.
If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders,
I know, my sister, that He will carry you.
He said, “Come unto Me all who are weary, and I will give you rest.”
[SOURCE: Scott Wesley Brown, “He Will Carry You” (n. p.: BMG Songs, Inc. and Birdwing Music, 1982).]
Our Everlasting Father is always faithful to us. Nobody loves and cares for us more than He. What problems, mountains, storms, sorrows fill your life today? Turn them over to Him, for He cares for you.
