881 What did Jesus have to say about God the Father Pt.1
What Did Jesus Have To Say About... • Sermon • Submitted
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- In an email this week, I said that I would be looking at, using the various branches of study, the life and teaching of Jesus:
- There are technical names given to these particular types of study & I have chosen to use them broadly to look at the life and teaching of Jesus
- We have the likes of Theology, Christology, Pneumatology etc.
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- Let me give you a little help with these words
- Each word has its origin in two Gk words – for example, first, theology
- You have theos which means God & logos, which means word
- Theology then is a word on God or a word about God
- In essence, it is the study of God
- The next one is easy – Christology – Christos + logos = a word on or a word about Christ – the study of Christ
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- I won’t go any further, but I tell you this so you can, at least, be less spooked when you hear those words again
- The fact of the matter is you do theology, Christology all the time
- You are studying your Bible and the life and teaching of Jesus so you are doing it – you just didn’t know the name for it
- Don’t worry about the other names as I will explain those when we come to them
- Today, we are looking at what Jesus had to say about the Father & I’ll have to do this over, at least, 2 sermons
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- At our homegroup this week I asked the question:
Q. What is the image of a father meant to convey?
- I got some good responses from a father being loving/caring to one who is provider, guide and teacher – I’d like to add – one who absolutely adores & cherishes his wife & mother of his children
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- Of course, everyone wants to know that their father is loving & kind & one who teaches, guides, provides & protects
- But what if you find out that your father is not who you thought he was – remember when Luke Skywalker found out who was his real father?
VIDEO CLIP - just for a chuckle
- Devastating to find out your father was an evil monster
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- One of the things I talked about was the concept of father
- Today, so much of our traditional social fabric has been brushed aside with the excuse that such & such is just a social construct
- We have heard it before – biology is brushed aside when it comes to changing genders because for years, many professors in the universities have been peddling the lie that gender/sex is just a social construct
- This social construct has come about, they say, through us socially feeding young children a gender identity with the likes of boys play with trucks & girls play with dolls & we impose pink for girls & blue for boys
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- I mention this because of its importance here to understanding God as Father
- There are those who would like to say that the image of Father has been created by society – it’s merely a social construct
- The implications of this is that the idea of father can be cast aside so that mother can be father & father mother
- But, of course, it is worse than that – like the notion of some 88 different genders that you can choose today, father & mother is attacked as being too binary – so there should just be parent
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- However, what we find in Scripture is that God created Man in His own image & likeness
- So the notion of father is not a social construct of society, but a true reflection of the very nature of God Himself
- He is God and He is Father
- He is provider, teacher, guide – He is so much more as we will discover from the teaching of Jesus
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- So do not let yourself be hoodwinked by postmodernists who think that there are no fixed, immutable truths & that everything is just a social construct of society
- Remember that God is revealed as Father & that He created the family of father and mother & children after His own Person, will & creative purpose
- That He created male & female, not equal, but complimentary
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- I avoid that term “equality” because it is so loaded with secular freight & how they use it like a magician waving his hand over a hat to pull a rabbit out
- Blind Freddie can tell that male & female are different – we are not equal – either biologically, personality-wise & even our brain-structures are different
- We have equal worth before God to be sure – but He has created us for different purposes & different roles in life & this was meant to be a blessing to all concerned, especially children
- Yet under postmodern dogma, people have bought into the devil’s lie that God is short-changing one of the sexes
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- Remember how the serpent used the argument of Eve being short-changed to poison her against God, so that she disobeyed Him!
- He pushed the line that – oh, God knows that you will be like Him if you take from the tree of the knowledge of good & evil & He doesn’t want any rivals or any competition – He’s a jealous God & wants His role as an all knowing One all to Himself
- That’s the lie he sold Eve & she bought it, just as the fundamentalist feminists have bought the lie that life consists in wanting to be like men & denigrating the role of motherhood so as to dispense with our uniqueness as male & female made in the image & likeness of our Creator
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- Again, as I have said many times, the Scriptures are our guide as to what we should set our sights on & how we should properly define ourselves
- If you are worried that I might advocate that women should be tied to a sink & live their lives barefoot & pregnant then you don’t know me at all & may very well have soaked up too much of the agenda of the world
- This is serious, life altering stuff & our children need to grow up hearing the truth of God because if they don’t, their faith & life will be swallowed up by the world & its ways
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- It’s important, therefore, that as we look at the teaching of Jesus, we understand that God, as presented by Him, is who God is & not just a social construct of man, imposed upon God
- The first point that we look at today is Jesus’ teaching that, in a thoroughly unique way, God is His Father
1. He is My Father
1. He is My Father
- Jesus was not born in the usual way – He had no biological father
- The Holy Spirit came upon Mary, a woman who had no relations with her betrothed, Joseph, & yet she was with Child
19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
- Not the son of Joseph, but the Son of God - God is His Father
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- The Jews persistently believed that God was their Father, but Jesus told them otherwise – that their father was the devil
- That would have put the cat among the pigeons, but it was a moment when Jesus made very clear His relationship with the Father in heaven
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.
54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; 55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.
a. Jesus Came from God
- Jesus came from God the Father – this is very different from the way you and I & every other person in history has come into the world, bar Adam & Eve
- We have been the product of a father & a mother
- But Jesus had no human father, which means that He had come directly from God the Father
23 And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.
- We see that Jesus is utterly unique in the way He came to be on the earth, but where He came from was from heaven above – from God Himself
b. Witnessed to by the Voice from Heaven
b. Witnessed to by the Voice from Heaven
- There are two accounts we know of where the Father speaks to Jesus & His disciples
- That is at His baptism and when He was transfigured into His heavenly glory
- At His baptism we know that He came to John the Baptist to be baptised in the Jordan river
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; 11 and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
- So we have a testimony of authenticity from the Father in heaven to everyone in the vicinity of Jesus’ baptism as THE Son of God
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- The second account of God’s witnessing to His Son occurred on the mount of transfiguration where Jesus was also transfigured into His heavenly glory
2 Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; 3 and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. 4 Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. 5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified. 7 Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” 8 All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone.
- What we are to understand here is quite significant
- Moses & Elijah appeared to Jesus & to Peter, James & John
- Why! Why Moses & Elijah? Why not Noah & Samson?
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- There were two categories that made up the Scriptures at this time & that was the categories of the Law & the Prophets
- They are mentioned time & time again, - for example…
40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
- These 2 commandments are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind & strength & the second is to love your neighbour as yourself
- On these 2 commandments rest the 10 commandments & all the other laws & teachings of the OT
- Moses was the one through whom, the Law was given
- Elijah was the one who is representative of the prophets
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- Here is a significant statement from the Father about Jesus, His Son
- Of all that has gone on before, He is now the supreme One who must be listened to – for the benefit of Peter, James & John, God says, “Listen to Him” - listen to Jesus!
2. He Is Our Father
2. He Is Our Father
- When we think of Jesus’ relationship to the Father we can say that He is THE only begotten Son of God
- He is the One & only who uniquely shares the same essence as the Father
- In 325 AD the church council at Nicea meet, amongst other things, to formulate this very truth...
[I believe] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
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- But Jesus taught that there are others who can be said to be God’s children, obviously, in a different sense from Himself
- We know that Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray
- Jesus started off the model or template prayer with an obvious point regarding the disciples relationship with God the Father
9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
- I think we often forget to notice or to pay attention to the opening statement of this prayer
- “Our Father” – which is personal in the extreme
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- The Jews understood that God was their Father from right back at the Exodus & where God wanted Moses to say to Pharaoh: “let My son go that he may serve Me”
22 “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. 23 “So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”
- It would have been incredibly hard for the Jews to realise that Gentiles were, through Jesus, being called sons of the living God
1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
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- From the point of view of the Gospel, the Jewish nation needs to repent & put their faith in Jesus Christ
- When they do this, they can again be called a son of God
- At present, the unregenerate Jew is as lost as the unregenerate Gentile
- God shows no partiality
While kayaking in southern England off the Isle of Wight, Mark Ashton-Smith, a lecturer at Cambridge University, capsized in treacherous waters. Clinging to his craft and reaching for his cell phone, Ashton-Smith, thirty-three yrs old, called his dad.
It didn’t matter that his father was training British troops in Dubai 3,500 miles away. Without delay, his father relayed his son’s Mayday to the Coast Guard nearest to his son. Within twelve minutes, a helicopter retrieved the grateful Ashton-Smith.
- It is truly wonderful to call God, our Father for it brings up so many wonderful attributes of a father
- Protector, provider, security, guide, teacher, comfort, strength & belonging
- I believe the Father of all people is who gives the meaning of belonging to the family
- The father becomes a security screen of protection for the family
- He forges the sense of belonging in a family
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- The father figure is so very vital & important for the well being of people – On Easter Sunday morn, Mary went to the tomb & seeing Jesus embraced Him
17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’ ”
- What a beautiful way of forging their identity as children of God being able to call our God, our Father!
3. He is Creator of All People
3. He is Creator of All People
- Jesus affirmed the Creation narrative as found in the book of Genesis
- The Father is the creator God who created us male & female & instituted the special union known as marriage
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- The Jewish men assumed the right to divorce their wives
- They simply had to say to her 3 times, “I divorce you” & then by writing her out a certificate of divorce – that settled the matter
- In an article called “Digital Divorce”, in “The Bizarre News” (the name of the paper), we enter a new era...
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - A whole new arena of marital law has been ushered into existence. In the Gulf emirate of Dubai men can now use mobile phone text messages to divorce their wives. Under strict interpretation of Islamic law, a man can divorce his wife simply by saying "I divorce thee" three times. Islamic religious scholars have now decreed that a text message is a valid way of ending a marriage. The ruling follows a case in which a woman received a text message from her husband saying: "You are divorced because you are late."1
- The great Jewish Rabbi’s Hillel, Shammai & Akiba debated, not whether to divorce their wives, but on what grounds made the divorce, legal
- The standard text up for debate between these 3 was Deut. 24:1
1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house,
- I’ll let you read the rest, but this passage actually has to do with the prohibition in remarrying the woman you divorced, but I want to explain what these Rabbi’s did with this first verse
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- In the Babylonian Talmud – Jewish writing handed down & added to from the time when the Jews were in exile in Babylon, we read...
The School of Shammai say: A man may not divorce his wife unless he has found unchastity in her, for it is written, Because he has found in her indecency in anything [Deut. 24:1]. And the School of Hillel say: (He may divorce her) even if she spoiled a dish for him, for it is written, Because he has found indecency in anything. R. Akiba says: Even if he found another fairer than she, for it is written, And it shall be if she find no favour in his eyes …2
- There you have a perfect example of interpreting the word of God without the control of context & the larger context like Genesis
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- In asking Jesus what grounds He would use to allow a man to divorce his wife, He went against the whole notion of divorce, period!
3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.
- There is a big difference between permitting & commanding
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- Well we have 3 of my 12 points done, so we will look at the rest in a fortnight’s time
Questions for Breakout Group
1. How would you explain/encourage someone to love our Father God if they have had an abusive father?
2. What damage can be done to the faith and life of a young person if he or she is not forthrightly and courageously taught the truths of Jesus’ teaching?
1 Bizarre News- Wednesday, July 04, 2001
2 https://ref.ly/logosres/gs-jets-22?ref=VolumePage.V+22%2c+p+117&off=241