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!)
The defining characteristic of a father is having children. The Gospel of John tells the story of the SON of God, and the process by which others become the children of God.
a. John 3 is an important place where Jesus discusses how we become the Father’s children.
The chapter records a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a learned Jewish scholar and member of the ruling council of the Jews.
In this conversation, Jesus lays out very clearly what we must do to become a member of God’s family. The conversation includes three brief exchanges between Jesus and Nicodemus.
B. Lessons from John 3
First exchange (John 3:2-3)
Nicodemus: You are a teacher, and God is with you.
Jesus: If you truly want to enter the kingdom of God, you must be born "again." (The Greek word can mean "from above" as well as "again".) Put another way, only children of the Father will inherit His kingdom.
Second exchange (John 3:4-8)
Nicodemus: How can this be? Can a man be "born" a second time?
Jesus: To be born again, "from above", you must be born in a very special way: of water and spirit. That is what baptism really is - two events in one. When you are baptized, you go under the water and you rise a child of God. When you rise from the water, you are reborn and in a spiritual sense, you take your first "breath" as a child of God.
Third exchange (John 3:9-12)
Nicodemus: How can this be?
Jesus: While my words and actions prompted you to come tonight, you still do not believe in me. And now that I have elevated your thinking to truly heavenly topics you are still clearly not ready to believe in me. But you must believe if you want to be a child of the Father.
1. Nicodemus was a respected man in Israel. As he stood before Jesus, however, he really had nothing, because he was still not a child of the true Father.
a. He had great knowledge, but he did not believe in the fullest sense. He did not put his trust in God’s cure for sin. He relied on a pile of rules that had accumulated for centuries.
Here is a very important principle to take to heart. We can understand every detail of God’s word in our mind. But if we do not truly believe, if we do not fully entrust our life to God then we are just like Nicodemus - standing before Jesus with our minds full of years of learning, but still not a child of the Father. We must never confuse knowledge with belief. Knowledge is a prerequisite to believing, but it never takes the place of it.
b. A few verses from the book of Proverbs provide one of the best definitions of "belief" in the whole Bible:
Proverbs 3:5 - 8 (NASB) Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.
2. Becoming a child of the Father begins with belief in the Lord Jesus, but it does not end there.
As Jesus told Nicodemus, belief must give rise to the earnest desire to be baptized, to be fully born from above.
Romans 6:3 - 5 (NASB) Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
Conclusion:
God is the Heavenly Father.
Jesus is the Son of the Father.
We can become His children too if we believe in and are baptized into Jesus.
The bible reveals God as our Father and tells of His desire that we be His children. He has given us the choice to believe in His Son and become His children. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth and be baptized into Christ.
Invitation
