A little boy comes home from Sunday School and tells his mother, “Guess what I learned today? God’s first name.” Intrigued she asked “What was it?” “Harold” came the reply “You know, Our Father who art in heaven, Harold be thy name”
Now we all know that Harold isn’t God’s first name, but the Lord’s Prayer does tell us what we can call God. For thousands of years the Jews had maintained that God’s name was too holy to use, and He was some distant deity way out there somewhere that we couldn’t relate to who certainly couldn’t relate to us and that we didn’t communicate with directly. To the Jews of Jesus day there had to be an intermediary, you went to the priest and they in turn offered sacrifices on your behalf to God.
You ever try to connect with someone through a middle man? And it just wasn’t happening? You know you really had to talk to someone but first you had to go through a receptionist, or secretary or maybe an operator. (Use clip from the Movie Transformers where a call is being made from the battle field to pentagon.)
And into this setting comes Jesus who says “Hey, when you pray you need to start by calling God by His name which is Father!”
The problem is that in order for this to work we need to have a decent view of our father. If your concept of a father is someone who is abusive or distant then this isn’t the best illustrative device. Dads don’t always get the greatest press, and for obvious reasons, you only have to watch the news or read the paper to realize that some fathers aren’t the nicest people around.
When we were in Australia we met a Christian singer by the name of Peter Shirley and he sang a song called “WOULD YOU REALLY MIND”:
“When I was just a child, I didn’t understand
Why my father left my mother with the waving of a hand.
He told me it was best this way, but I couldn’t figure why.
The solution to the problem made my mother cry.
Lord I find it hard to call you father,
My memories aren’t real fond of the father that I had,
LORD I find it hard to call you father, but would you really mind,
Would you really mind if I just called you friend.
I know this may be selfish, I know this may be wrong.
But I’m not sure my father loves me, I haven’t seen him for so long.
Lord you’re so much more to me than the father that I knew,
I know that you won’t leave me; your love will see me through.
Lord help me to understand, and ease this pain inside.
And help me to forgive, my father’s human side.
Unite us with your spirit, though in flesh we’re torn apart.
And take away this bitterness that’s wrapped around my heart.”
Somehow, what Jesus meant when he referred to father isn’t necessarily what the same association that some people make now when they think of their father. He’s saying light you’re thinking dark, he’s thinking protective you’re thinking abusive. You see when you’ve been physically or sexually abused by your father, when he drank the family’s food away, or constantly berated you and told you that you were no good. When the memory of your father, makes you angry or brings tears to your eyes then it’s going to be really difficult for you to feel good about a God who is called father. You may not even feel like you could pray to someone called father. You might share Lord Chesterfield’s feelings when he said “As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless.”
The problem with our language is that we define it by our own experiences. We can both be talking English, using the same words but thinking totally different things. If we are talking about cars and the subject turns to Oldsmobiles I would immediately think of my favourite car which was a 1971 Cutlass Supreme convertible that I owned when I was eighteen. But if your experience with General Motors products in general and Oldmobiles in particular has been bad, like perhaps you owned a 1982 Firenza then you would be thinking entirely different thoughts then I would. And for good reasons.
The entire Lord’s prayer is dependent on this opening line, and how we are going to view the rest of the prayer is going to depend on how we understand the opening remark. And so the only way that we can know what Jesus meant when he used the phrase “Our Father” is to look at other times that he used the term father and what it says about his concept of a father because remember he’s talking about his view of father not ours.
John 5:20 For the Father loves the Son . . .1) When Jesus Spoke Of His Father He Spoke Of Someone Who Loved Him. Jesus didn’t have to wonder if his father loved him, it wasn’t a maybe or an if statement, he knew it, it was fact not theory. If you look through the parables, the stories Jesus told, you find that the Father is always the good guy. He’s the one who takes the prodigal son back, he’s the one who gives his children the very best, he’s the one who defends his children.
In other words whenever Jesus uses a father as an illustrative device it is in a positive sense. Unlike television where dad is usually the idiot on the show.
We may not know where we stand with our earthly father either because his he hasn’t verbalized his love for us or because his actions negate his words, but that won’t be a problem with our heavenly father.
Jesus tell us in John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. I know the world is a big place and sometimes when we think of God’s love divided 6 billion ways it doesn’t seem like we get a very big slice of the pie, but reality is that God’s love doesn’t divide like a pizza, not only does every believer get the same size piece but each piece is the same size as the sum of the total. In other words God’s love divided by 6 billion remains God’s love, not 1/6,000,000,000 of God’s love. Jesus reminds us of his Father’s love for us as believers in John 16:27 for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.
What type of love is it that God has for us? Listen to what Jesus best friend John said, 1 John 3:1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! We are his children, he is our parent, and not just any parent he is a perfect parent, a parent who loves us.
So what do you think? Think you could pray to someone who loved you enough to make the ultimate sacrifice for you?
The first time we see the relationship between Jesus and his heavenly father is in Matthew 3:17 and it happened at the beginning of Jesus public ministry, right after John had baptized Jesus, he comes up from the Jordan river Matthew 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”
2) When Jesus Spoke Of His Father He Spoke Of Someone Who Affirmed Him. Jesus concept of father was someone who bragged on his kids. I’m 47 years old and it still thrills me right down to my toes to find out that Dad has been bragging me up. Maybe that’s not something that you can identify with but it’s the reality of God our father. Time and time again Jesus spoke about the worth that God has attributed to us, as his children.
Jesus had no doubt that his Father was in his corner and never had to wonder what his father thought of him. John 6:27 For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
Maybe your earthly father has never told you he thought you were doing a great job, maybe he never said that he was proud of you, but upon your Heavenly Father’s lips are the words “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
So what do you think? Think you could pray to someone who affirmed you and thought you were the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Matthew 26:53 Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? I love this particular portion of the Bible. Jesus is being arrested and Peter pulls out a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the guys in the mob. Now personally I think Peter is maligned here because I really don’t think that Peter was actually trying to cut off the guy’s ear. He was trying to cut off the guy’s head and just had a rotten aim, and Jesus tells Peter to put the sword away and then he makes that statement. In other translations it says Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? A legion was a military term which actually referred to a large unit of infantry numbering up to 6,000 men. All Jesus had to do was say sic em and 72,000 angels with attitude would have been all over those guys, like down on a duck. You see 3) When Jesus Spoke Of His Father He Spoke Of Someone Who Would Protect Him.
Every once in a while you need a really good quote from Freud, and I feel that coming on Sigmund Freud said I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.
Jesus knew that his Father was in his corner, that all he had to do was say the word and his father would be there for him. Not only that but Jesus knew that His Father who is really our Father would be there for us as well listen to his prayer in the book of John 17:11 Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.
So what do you think? Think you could pray to someone who was in your corner always ready to protect you?
So, where are we at? Oh yes, hallowed be your name. Now in order to periodically show you my grasp of the original language I tell you things like the Greek for the word hallowed is Hagia-zesthia, and it comes from the adjective Hagios which is translated holy but literally means, different or set apart.
And so the people that Jesus was talking to at the time understood exactly what he was saying to them the temple was different then other buildings, the Sabbath is different then other days, the Altar is different then ordinary things and the Priest is different from other men.
What this scripture is saying than is this “Let God’s name be treated different then all other names, let God’s name be given a position which is absolutely unique.” God’s name not to be taken lightly, it’s not to be used without thought. It’s not an exclamation nor is it an oath. It is the name of the creator of the universe, and it’s the name of your Saviour.
Now again we have to realize that all this talk of name would make a lot of sense to the people who heard because there is some Jewish thought here. You see in Hebrew your name is not just what you’re called by but it also describes who you are and your personality.
And so Abraham means father of multitudes, and Isaac means he laughs, and Jacob, heel grabber, and Simon is a reed while Peter is a rock. David understood this when he wrote the book of Psalms because he made statements like Psalm 9:10 Those who know your name trust in you.
Psalm 20:7 Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God. Now that doesn’t mean that in times of difficulty we remember what God’s name is , let’s see what was that again, oh yeah Jehovah, Jehovah right. No what it means is that in times of difficulty that we will remember the nature and character of God. And we will trust not just in human resources but also in the power and love of God.
And so we need to remember that God’s name isn’t Harold, instead it’s Father, but only to those who have accepted the offer of His adoption. I have friends who adopted a young man in his early twenties, he had been brought up in foster homes most of his life including their home during his teens. One day he mentioned how he had no family, no roots and so the couple decided to correct the situation and so they offered to adopt him with full benefits, he would use their name and would have all of the rights and privileges of their natural children right up to sharing the estate when they die. They made that offer and it was valid but the only way it became reality was when John accepted it. Without his consent and acceptance it was worthless.
God had made the offer, it’s summed up in the book of John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
How do you do that? How do you receive Him? You just tell him that’s what you want to do, we going to close in prayer and while I’m going to pray a prayer of salvation, and if you have never asked Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and accept you as a part of his family I’d encourage you to do that today.
Many of the ideas for this message originated in William Barclay’s “Daily Study Bible”
PowerPoint may be available for this message contact me at denn@cornerstonewesleyan.ca
