What do I want to write as a foundation for what’ll be my real Father’s Day message?
I already wrote and spoke on how everything we do since we accepted Christ as our Savior is just as worshipful as singing and speaking to Him. We have been made temples of the Holy Spirit, and every breath we take is a song testifying of God’s goodness; Every beat of our hearts, a worship service acknowledging God’s glory.
Side note, I think that’s what I’ll be talking about later, in an online Bible Study. I’ll start off with belief – that is, giving consideration to who God says He is, and point out the awe and the humility that naturally follows. At the end of David’s life he was witness to God’s goodness, and he proclaimed before the congregation that he was both in awe of God’s greatness, and brought to humility considering who we were before Him. That’ll be something I work on after this.
I thought it was Father’s Day last Sunday, and as such I thought it was timely to also say that being a father is also another way for us to worship. I probably should continue to emphasize that while not everyone will be a father, and not everyone has the opportunity to have a good relationship with their own fathers, that shouldn’t stop us from seeing how God is a good Father to us – It’s not that we see God through our fathers, but as I’ve experienced and testified, it’s through God that we see our fathers, we can all see the God as a Good Father through Christ. It’s no accident that this is in line with what Christ mentioned in John 14:9, where He reminded Philip (and all of us, consequently); that he who has seen the Son has seen the Father.
I’m not so sure if any of this was actually made clear last Sunday, but I will certainly bound forward from there… Or, actually, why don’t we go through the verses leading to that one? We might be able to see some revelations when we look into the context, in John 14:1-9.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:1-6
We usually quote verse 6, but I catch myself stopping at the first part; I mean, it’s awesome enough! To the Jews, Christ was not merely just another Rabbi who knew the Torah and the Scriptures – He was not merely someone knowledgeable, not just someone who has an idea of what the Truth is – He IS the Truth! And to the Gentiles and the rest of the world, He was not merely just another famous person for us to emulate, in the same pedestal as other figures of power, prosperity and/or wisdom; He wasn’t just someone whose life we were to copy and/or to learn from – He IS the Life!
Now I’ve had trouble differentiating Christ as our Way, and Christ as our Life in that regard – I used to say that Christ is our Way to live, and Christ was our literal Life at the same time, if only to reconcile or justify Him saying He was the Way apart from being the Life, and the Life apart from the Way. But if I was to consider the rest of the verse, I see another reason why He mentioned both separately – and I shouldn’t be overthinking it or complicating it too much, really. Christ is our Life, and is the Life we live, but if Christ was the Way implying a direction and/or path, well, we can gather from what He says, that He is the one and only Way to THE Father. If we continue down the stated Scripture, we read the following:
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Friends, if you’ve spent enough time going through the Word, I believe the Holy Spirit is faithful to each and every one of us by way of pointing out that the salvation we have in Christ is so much more than just us going to Heaven when we die. When we came to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, this also meant that we received the Holy Spirit, and this Holy Spirit that used to convict us of sin and judgment now convicts us of righteousness… That is, we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).
But in light of what we’re talking about today, we’re coming to realize that when we believe in Christ – that is, when we see and know Christ, we also automatically see and know God. And apparently whether we see God or know God, it’s automatic that we would see or know God as Father.
Now I took a quick look at John 14:6 through BibleHub, and I just had to make sure of what I saw – it turns out that almost ALL translations of the Bible say that Christ said nobody comes to ‘THE Father’.
This choice of words tells me so much, personally! Why? Well, it tells me that if Christ is to be known as King of Kings – that is, the King above every other person who claims to be king, and therefore King over all – then through that salvation we have in Christ ,we would also come to know that God is not merely A Father, but THE Father – that is, the Father of all over people who claim to be fathers, and therefore Father over all; God is THE Father, and only through Christ’s finished work and by the power of the Holy Spirit do we have the permission, boldness and confidence to say – God is OUR Father.
What does this imply? Well, we look at the following Scriptures:
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
John 14:18-20
Friends, Christ paid the greatest price for us to be reconciled to God, that we may know His as OUR Father – and this means that (1) we are His beloved children, and (2) we are no longer orphans; we are no longer alone, because Christ is with us. It’s yet another reason why we rejoice in His Salvation!
As I was thinking about this, it couldn’t be helped – Christ’s story of the Prodigal Son gives us an even deeper perspective on how our God is our Father.
And He said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”
Luke 15:11-32
Putting this all together, we have an idea of what we have when we say that we have God as our Father.
There will be times that we would fail ourselves or other people. In these times, it’s not uncommon for us to entertain thoughts in our head that would have us doubting if God still loves us, or if He wants to have anything more to do with us. I especially struggled with this in the past – I imagined it would be something like that scene in Russell Crowe’s Gladiator; whenever I was aware of a sin I committed, I imagined the effect to be something like when Marcus Aurelius told his son Commodus, ‘You will not be emperor’; I thought if I sinned, I would lose something, and I would need to do good to get back to God’s good graces.
But we see that even if the younger son was nothing but rude to his own father, it was the father who ran towards him. The son had all sorts of words to say – he rehearsed them, too – to be hired back in his father’s house… But instead of the son working to get back to his father’s favor, it was the father who restored his son’s position in the family, giving him a robe, a ring, and shoes! And so it is with us – if we ever think that we are no longer loved by Him, behold – through Christ, we who were dead to God have been made alive again! If ever we think we are no longer in His presence, behold – through Christ, we who were once lost have now been found by God!
There will be times that we would be frustrated, that no matter what we do, we feel as if we don’t get the attention we deserve, or the rewards we think are due to us. But we see that even if the elder son was nothing but rude to his own father, it was the father who left the party and intentionally tried calling him back in; and even if he was being real with his father, going as far as to bad mouth his own brother, it was the father who lovingly reminded him – ‘you are always with me’, and ‘all that is mine is yours.’
Friends, so it is with us. We ought to know that through Christ, we are absolutely reconciled to God, much so that we not only believe and appreciate that He will never leave nor forsake us, but He is our Father, constantly reminding us that He is always with us, and we are always with Him, and all that He has is ours, as well.
I know I want to speak out on how we don’t need to have our earthly fathers to understand what it feels to have a father – if we need THE Father, we look no further than Jesus Christ. Through Christ we are no longer orphans, but beloved children of God. Through Christ, we have been restored and reconciled – our Father runs to us, whether we doubt as the younger son, or we lash out as the elder son.
Our Father rejoices! Why? Because through Christ, we who were dead have been made alive through Him, we who were lost have been found, through Him!
Give praise to God, the Father of Fathers – for because of Christ, we are always with Him, and all that is His is ours!
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