Knowing the Father

I officially declare today the first day of summer, at least for 2013.  For no other reason than today I start my summer preaching series, which wouldn’t really work if it was still spring. 

This summer our theme will be “A Red Letter Summer”  and if you are wondering what that means it’s really pretty simple.  In most bibles that are printed today, if you flip to the gospels, and the revelation you will discover that some, not all but a lot, of the words are printed in red.  And those are the words of Christ.  The term Red Letter meaning something important first came from the practice of printing the dates for Holy Days on Calendars in red.  The first record of this is found in a book written by William Caxton is 1490 where it says, “We wryte yet in oure kalenders the hyghe festes wyth rede lettres of coloure of purpre.”  Obviously Bill learned to spell with Hooked on Phonics.

The idea of printing the words of Christ in Red came from Louis Klopsch who was an editor of the Christian Herald Magazine.  The first Red Letter New Testament was published in 1899 and the first Red Letter Bible was published 2 years later.  And it caught on.  Many of those who use the King James Version find it useful because the King James doesn’t use quotation marks.   

A few years ago a group started that called themselves “Red-Letter Christians”.  Proponents of the movement decided that both the far right and left of Christianity was exploiting the New Testament for their political agendas a response they have endeavored to create an evangelical movement that focuses on the teachings of Jesus Christ, particularly in regard to social issues.

However if we truly believe that the whole Bible is the inspired word of God then we can’t simply lop off the parts we don’t like.  So in highlighting some of the red letter portions of the Gospels we aren’t saying that these are more important than the words that you might  read from other portions of the New Testament, but they are the words of Jesus. 

So where to start?  It has been interesting as we’ve been looking at the summer preaching schedule with the staff to see where each of them is planning on going with this series on the dates they are scheduled to speak.  Most of us have a particular red letter passage that is our favorite.  Whether it be “For God so Love the World”, “Suffer the little children to come to me” or “You must be born again.”    So many scriptures, so little time.  So where do we start?

Well that was easy, it is Father’s day and time and time again Jesus refers to God as Father.  And he tells us that we should approach God as our heavenly Father, in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus even tells us that when we address God we should call him Father. 

And that was a departure because 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. 

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 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 embracing 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.

And so the picture that comes to mind when Jesus says “Father” may be completely different than the picture that comes to my mind.  And I have a great Dad, but even with that he can’t be compared to my heavenly father.

This morning let’s go back to the scripture that we started with Luke 10:22 “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Jesus tells us that we need to approach God as Father, but that will only work if we understand how Jesus viewed his Father.  Jesus said, “No one truly knows the Father except the Son.”  But he didn’t stop there he goes on to say “and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

So, the question is: To whom does the son choose to reveal the father?  And the answer would be those who want to discover the Father.  Because as you read the Jesus story we read the description of the Father’s character from the Son himself.    

And so the only way that we can know what Jesus meant when he referred to His 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) Jesus Knew the Love of the Father  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 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. 

Hopefully your kids know that you love them, and they need to hear you say it, hopefully this song couldn’t be written about any of us.

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 embrace a Father 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 and we pick up the story in Matthew 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

2) Jesus Knew the Affirmation of the Father. Jesus concept of father was someone who bragged on his kids.  I’m 53 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, maybe you can’t remember your dad ever bragging on you 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 embrace a Father who affirmed you and thought you were the greatest thing since sliced bread.

And Dad’s you need to affirm your kids.  I have a friend who used to say that we get our children as empty buckets and it’s up to us to fill those buckets with good things.  Way to go, you’re awesome, I love you so much, you are the best kid in the world.

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) Jesus Knew the Protection of the Father

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 also 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.

Does that mean nothing will ever go wrong and that you are safe from the consequences of your actions?  Not at all, but it does mean that our Father will always be there to hold us and comfort us.  It does mean that Satan has no power over our lives as children of God, unless we allow him to have that power over us. 

Sometimes as much as my dad wanted to protect me from life and all that could go wrong there were times that by my actions I removed myself from Dad’s protection. 

We talked about this before, the reason God gave us his word, the reason God gives us rules and regulation and guidelines isn’t because he’s a spoil sport and doesn’t want us to have any fun, they are there to protect us, not just from physical harm, but from emotional harm and spiritual harm as well. 

Just like when our fathers told us, “Don’t play on the street, don’t tease the dog and if you keep poking your sister she’s going to smack you.”

God wants to protect us, but he won’t take away our free will to do it. 

We all want to protect our kids, but if we decided that in order to do that we would lock them up and never let them out of their room.  While that might be effective in protecting them society would take a dim view of it and ultimately it would backfire as they became resentful.  Instead we try to teach them to make good choices and hope and pray for the best. 

Which is why the bible teaches us in Proverbs 22:6 Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.   By the way, proverbs aren’t guarantees, what they are is statements of common sense or general truth.  Solomon is saying that if you want your children to stay on the right path when they are older then you need to show them that path and start them on that path when they are younger.  

God could do that, he could lock us by taking away our free will.  Instead he shows us the right path, through his word and through the preaching of his word.  He wants to protect you, but when you step outside those boundaries and say “I don’t need you or your rules” then you’re paddling your own canoe. 

So what do you think?  Do you think you could embrace a Father who was in your corner and who was always ready to protect you?

So if you’ve never experienced the love, encouragement and protection of God the Father it is available to you today.  Jesus told his followers John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

You come to the Father by entrusting your life to the Son.  And what better day to come to the Father than on Father’s Day.