God as A Father
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be call the children of God! Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”– 1 John 3:1
A small boy said, "Father’s Day is just like Mother’s Day, only you don’t spend as much on the gift.
We can embrace God as your Father no matter how much hurt an earthly father has caused. – Some one
Father is not an abstract word. Father is one of the first words that every little one learns to speak, whether “papa” or “daddy.” The same is true in the family of God. In fact, Jesus taught us that when we pray, we should say, “Our Father.”
There are some people who find it extremely difficult to think of God as their Father. Perhaps because of a challenge or a breakdown that they’ve had in their relationship with their earthly father.
Today, let us meditate how we as family, friends, or children can relate to God as a Father. Today 40% of children in the United States and in North America are going to sleep in homes which their fathers do not live in. 40%.
Now does every child need a father. Increasingly, our society's answer to that question is "no" or "not necessarily." But the Bible's answer to that question is a resounding "yes." Every child needs a father. Every child needs a father. Every growing child needs a father. Most astonishing of all, the Bible tells us that, through Jesus, every person has a Father. They have a perfect Father, the father of your dreams, when you come into the family of God.
The challenge for us, today in this society, is to understand the Fatherhood of God and understand who we are in relation to God in that way.
I John 3:1 says, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" That is what we are!
There are three truths that we need to realize and teach our children as they are growing up. The first truth is this:
I. God wants to relate to us as a Father:
God is our Father. God wants to relate to everyone of us as a Father. Now, that doesn't mean that God is male. In fact, in the Bible there are lots of beautiful comparisons about the warm, nurturing, kind, and caring aspects of God. He carried the nation of Israel in His womb. He cries out like a woman in labor. He birthed the Jewish nation. He has compassion on us like a mother has compassion for the baby at her breast. He nurses and nurtures us. He comforts as a mother comfort.
So why don't we call God "mother"? Why do we call God "Father"? That's a debate beginning to surface in many churches. And many denominations say there are beautiful comparisons in Scripture about God mothering us. So why do we call God “Father”? Why is it important for us to understand the Fatherhood of God?
The Obvious Reason:
The first reason we call God "Father" is a very obvious and understandable reason. It's almost too simple to be explained. It's because that's what He wants to be called. Throughout Scripture, He reveals Himself as Father.
The first person of the Trinity has many names. “Holy, Holy, Holy. God Almighty. & The Most Holy One.” But when Jesus came to tear away the veil and to open up the mystery to us of who God was, he revealed God as Father. In fact, He referred to God as Father more than any other name. The word that He used for God was “Father.” There are lots of other words and lots of other names for God; but "Father" is a very concrete word.
All of us have a clear idea of what "father" means or should mean. I don't know about you, but it's a little bit different from the other names of God: The Holy, Holy, Holy or Almighty One or Rock. Those are more conceptual names. They're particularly important names because they teach us about the character of God. But they're much more conceptual. They're not as concrete and personal.
Father is a Personal Being:
"Father" is a very personal name. It indicates a personal being. That's the second reason. The term "father" indicates a personal being. This is astounding. The implications of this are astonishing. God says, "I'm your Father." What that means is that God is someone we can get to know. It means that He is a personal being—someone we can bump up against in real flesh and blood, someone we can interact with, and someone we can become close, intimate, and personal with.
His relationship:
2 Corinthians 6:16–18: "God has said of you, 'I will live in you and walk among you . . . and I will be your God and you shall be My people. I will welcome you and will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and my daughters.’”
Father is the name that God has chosen to best describe the relationship of a supremely personal being to His Son and to His children. "Father" is a Christian name for God. It is the name that sets Christianity apart from every other religion. Other religions have a great almighty god and an untouchable spirit, or the great metaphysical aura, or a great mystic thing that binds the universe together. Some religions have a god who is far and almighty. But Christianity is the only religion that has a Father who gave His Son so that we could become His children. It’s very personal and very intimate.
He relates to us as a father. He doesn't relate to us as a father/mother. That would be hard conceptually as well, because we don't have a father/mother. We have a father and a mother. How my father fathers me is different than how a mother mothering me. So, God in His wisdom—He is not male. He supersedes and transcends sexuality and masculinity and femininity. But in His wisdom, He has chosen the best term to describe who He is. He has given us the earthly example of family, marriage, husband, wife, and father—to tell us about Him.
You see, "father" is not an abstract word. How tragic and how foolish of us to shy away from this name because some human males have been a poor example of what fatherhood is.
II. God wants us to see Him as our Eternal Father:
John 14:6 "Jesus said to them, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.'" Oh, there's another part to that verse. What does it say? "No one comes to the Father except through Me."
So, when you're coming to Jesus and when you're introducing Jesus, Where are you taking them? To the Father. We're missing that so often because of the "patriarchal misogynistic society." Right? We're afraid of saying, "I'm taking you to the Father. You're going to meet the Father, and you're going to understand a father's love."
John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You."
This is Jesus praying. In this statement, John 17:3, He is encapsulating what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to have eternal life. Jesus is praying: "This is eternal life.” Meaning: “This is eternal life: Father, that they may know You and the Son that You have sent."
That is eternal life. If we are not loving the truth, knowing the truth, and preaching the truth about the fatherhood of God, we're missing Christianity. We're not getting it, and we're not transmitting it to our daughters and our sons.
1John 1:3 "Truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus" (KJV).
Our fellowship. What does fellowship mean? Fellowship means closeness. It means familiarity. It means getting to know someone. Our fellowship. You see, we are brought into a family relationship. So many of us think that Christianity is a lifestyle and a way of living—and it certainly involves that—but it involves the heart. Christianity is a relationship.
What does it mean to be in a relationship with the Father? According to Jesus' prayer, it means FIRST we need to know Him; and SECOND we need to experience His love. Are you like that with the Father? Do you know your Father? Do you really know your heavenly Father? Do you experience His love?
John 17:23. This again is Jesus praying. He is pouring out His heart to the Father. He's praying, "Oh, Father, I pray that these people may know that You love Me."
John 17:26 Jesus prays and says, "I have made You known to them and will continue to make You known." Then He gives the reason, ‘why’? "So that the love that You have for Me may be in them."
This is an incredible concept. When you become a Christian, the full force of the Father's love, that the Father has for His Son Jesus, is directed towards you. Doesn't that blow you away? That blows me away. The love that the Father has for His Son Jesus, He has for Mary, He has for me, and He has for you.
God has put a father longing in each one of our hearts. When we become Christians, we are adopted into a family relationship. Now the Jewish adoption process is really interesting because a Jewish family would find a child they wanted to adopt, and then they would pay off that child’s debts. Then they would take that child and sever all relationships that child had and take them into a new family and give them a new name, a new relationship.
Let's take a look at some familiar verses. You know all these verses. John 17:25-26. I'll just read them for you. "Righteous Father, the world has never known You, but I have known You, and these disciples know that You sent Me on this mission. I have made Your very being known to them—who You are and what You do. And I continue to make it known so that Your love for Me might be in them, exactly as I am in them".
You see, Jesus makes known who the Father is and what the Father does. That's what Jesus came to reveal to us—who the Father is and what the Father does. When we place our faith in Christ, God becomes our Father, we became his children. Every human being was created by God, but not everyone is a child of God. The only way to be a child of Father is being born again it.
III. God wants us to see Him as our Abba Father:
In the scriptures, there are many different names used to describe God. While all the names of God are important in many ways, the name “Abba Father” is one of the most significant names of God in understanding how He relates to people. The word Abba is an Aramaic word that would most closely be translated as “Daddy.” When we come into the family of God. God pays off all our debts, severs our ties to sin, brings us into His family, and gives us His name. He gives us the Holy Spirit, who is the proof of an adoption. In the Jewish society, there are multiple witnesses needed for an adoption to be legal. And we are told, in the Bible, that the Holy Spirit is the witness.
What type of witness is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of sonship. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of adoption. He is also called the Spirit of your Father in Matthew 10:20.
It's this Spirit—the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of sonship, and the Spirit of your Father—that lives right in our hearts, when we became Christians. It's this Spirit that calls us and drives us to intimacy with the Father. It's this Spirit in our hearts that is calling out, "Abba, Father! Abba, Father!"
Romans 8:15-16 "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father!' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (NKJV).
Galatians 4:6 "Because you are His sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!'"
Did you catch the first phrase of "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage to fear." Isn't that amazing? Some of us are so afraid of God the Father.
"I am so afraid that He is going to belittle me, just like my father did. I am so afraid He is going to reject me, just like my father did. I'm so afraid that He is going to yell at me, just like my father did. I'm so afraid that His love for me is conditional, that I need to perform and jump through hoops, just like I had to do for my dad."
That's not the Holy Spirit in you talking. God didn't give us a spirit of fear. The Holy Spirit in your heart cries out, "Abba, Father!" It's longing for connection. It's longing for that intimacy. It's longing to become one. It's longing for closeness.
Some of you may wonder why you feel so much frustration. Why you're living the Christian life and going through all the motions but there is no joy. Certainly, we go through wilderness-like times. We do. But it could be that the Spirit within you is crying out, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" because that is what the Spirit does.
There’s a little town in Spain with a boy named Juan. Juan was a rebellious son, and he got in a conflict with his father and stole some money. Then he ran away from home to a neighboring city, a large city. The father looked for him but couldn’t find him. The father asked around for him, and finally heard that Juan was in the neighboring city from a friend of his.
So the father went to the city and walked up and down the streets, but couldn’t find him. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Because he needed to leave and go back home, he decided the only thing that he could do was to take out an ad in the local paper. The ad said this: “Juan, all is forgiven. How I long to see you again. Please meet me on Saturday at noon on the steps of City Hall. Love Dad.”
When Saturday came, he went to the appointed place. There were almost a hundred boys named Juan sitting on the steps of City Hall. Isn’t that amazing?!
We long to be fathered. All we wanted to hear was, “All is forgiven. Come meet me. Love Dad.” That’s what those boys wanted to hear.
Jesus' whole message when He was on earth was, “Come and meet My father. Come and meet My father. See these miracles that I’m doing? My father does that. Hear the words that I’m speaking? I’m just telling you what My father told Me. See the compassion I have? That’s the compassion of the Father. See the love I have for you. That’s the love that the Father has for Me. Come and look at Me. Spend some time with Me. It’s like you’re spending time with My Dad. You’re getting to know Him.” His whole message was “Come meet My father. If you believe in Me, He can be your father, too.” God sent Jesus to show them the father heart of God.
Dear brothers and sister in Christ! God wants to relate us as a personal father, eternal father, and Abba father. He is calling us “Come to me all you who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Would you come and meet your Father? Amen.
