We enter the Christian faith from a variety of angles.
Just as the space shuttle must enter into the universe at just the correct angle to effect a proper entry into earths atmosphere – so it is that we must enter into the family of God at just the right angle to reach the friendly atmosphere of the Kingdom of God.
For example a person who has been deeply wounded and blames themse3lves may in fact end up in self condemnation.
Such a person may have little problem in believing in personal sin – but will have difficulty in accepting that God could ever forgive and accept them.
Conversely a proud or arrogant person will have difficulty identifying any real sense of personal sin – That person will say stuff like:-
“I am a really good person and have not done anyone any harm.”
Whilst they may acknowledge their need for
Christ and the cross they will remain proud and superior and not be prepared to really bow their knees before the living God.
They will be a bit like the person who thinks that God has landed a great catch by getting them.
But the scriptures say:-
PHP 2:9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
PHP 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
PHP 2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
The entry point here is again at the wrong angle.
How then can we get it right???
I believe much of the answer to that question is all tied up in the identity of God as our Father.
Over the next few weeks I want to open up the subject with you of the Father heart of God.
If we can understand what God is really like then we will understand better who we are.
If we understand better who we are in relation to God then we will be in a much better position to discover who we are in Christ.
The first passage I would like us to look at is the passage that reveals how God would have us pray –
It is called the Lord’s prayer and it begins with two precious words.
Our Father.
" `Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
MT 6:10 your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
MT 6:11 Give us today our daily bread.
MT 6:12 Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
MT 6:13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one. ’
Our Father:-
This is how Jesus taught us to address God.
In those two short words – Jesus profoundly describes your position before God.
Our – God is corporately the possesion of all who will want to accept Christand follow him.
You can’t reduce God to your own back yard –
Many individuals and sects have tried to do that.
The exclusive Bretheren for all their fine features and they have many – have failed at the point of thinking that they are more correct – more accurate in their theology than everyone else.
In almost every branch of the church we have witnessed a kind of exclusivity and fencing others out that simply is not biblical.
Even the liberals who want to include everyone which involves flying in the face of the biblical evidence get it wrong.
By their non bilbical inclusiveness they make one bad fatal error – they exclude those who take the scriptures very seriously.
The bible says:-
Romans chapter 10 verse 10
12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
So we establish then that the word our puts us alongside many different variaties of Christians.
And it is in this context of corporate faith that God reveals himself as our Father.
Jesus teaches us to pray – “Our Father.”
Sometimes we would rather we had God to ourselves – and we do in a sense – but there is also a sense in which we have to realise that God is this or that Person’s Father as well as mine.
Bill Cosby – in his funny but insightful book entitled simply Fatherhood shares this anecdote:-
There is one sound from my own children that I cannot bear: the sound of them crying. And the most piteous crying comes not from an injury to your daughters body but to her feelings. It starts low and then heartbreakingly builds, with fluid flowing from a variety of outlets; her eyes, her mouth, and her nose. Desperately you try to calm her while wiping her face and seeking the name of the person who reduced her to this state. But your plans to kill that person are changed when you learn that the person is another daughter of yours.
“Shes bossing me!” the little weeper says about her sister.
It turns out that the tragedy has been caused by her sister stopping her putting on one of her mother’s silk scarves.
At once you turn from the dripping victim and call in the older sister, that dastardly girl.
“But mum says you can’t wear that,” the sister tells the little one.
“I know but you still can’t boss me and snatch it away,” the little one says with her own wondrous logic.
And she underscores her point by starting to cry again and flinging herself on the bed. She has lost so much fluid that you fear she needs an IV of saline solution.
After thanking the older sister for the information you quickly go to the mother and plead the little ones case.
“Our youngest daughter is having a nervous breakdown because she wants to wear your scarf for a little while”, you say.
The Mother now gives you a particular reason; because she says so. As you return to the child, you are filled with anguish over her plight. She, however, not only has stopped crying, but is happily playing with something else.
Call it just another part of being a father; trying to catch up with misery and joy.
The “our”in our Father has been terribly misunderstood.
It is this kind of dynamic that causes Jesus to tell us to
Forgive one another – to love one another and to pray Our father.
Now there are all kind of discussions held in our modern world about the status and the3 role of the word Father.
Many of the problems raised are important and many of the issues are real.
This is not what we are talking about here – we are discussing the revelation of God as our Father and the scriptural revelation and relevance of that.
I will leave the other discussions to more learned people.
What we are trying to idscover here is the character of God’s love for us and the healing power of his love for our lives.
The reason for this is – who you are and what you become is affected and defined by your parents.
Your geneology affects who you are.
One of the great tragedies in the Western world and one of the causes of the decline of the Church in the west has been the loss of comprehension as God as our Father.
We live in a world where identity has been a major issue.
Floyd McClung in his book “The Father Heart of God.” Talks about a lost generation who wandered the world in the 1960’s and 70’s looking for a sense of purpose and identity.
The incredible sadness was that they were on a journey of futiility as the answer lay at home. For beneath the veneer of busyness and capitalism was a reveered God who had bought the blessing of prosperity in the first place and who could have been depeended on for continuity and meaning had he not been pigeonholed in the insatiable thirst for more.
Contrast all of this with Jesus Christ.
It has been said of Jesus that no-one influenced the world as he did.
Who, in your opinion,
is the most outstanding personality of all time?
I have posed this question to people of many religions, even atheists and Communists around the world. The answer from all knowledgeable people is always the same: "Jesus of Nazareth."
I recall the response of a young radical attending the University of California, Berkeley. The campus was the fountainhead of the turbulent student revolution during the 1960’s. For an entire week, six hundred of our Campus Crusade staff and students personally shared the claims of Christ in small and large meetings with approximately 23,000 students. Thousands expressed their desire to receive and follow Jesus as their Savior and Lord.
Early in the week I interviewed the acknowledged leader of the revolution. She had been born into a non-Christian religion and was a dedicated atheist and committed Communist, demanding the violent overthrow of our government.
I asked her, "Who is the greatest person who has ever lived? Who in all of history has done the most good for mankind?"
There was a long akward silence and finally a reluctant reply, "I guess I would have to say Jesus of Nazareth."
People of every religion, if they know the facts, acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the unique personality of all time. He is the One who has changed the whole course of history. History is HIS STORY. Remove Jesus of Nazareth from history, and it would be a completely different story. Consider today’s date on your calendar. It gives witness to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth lived on the earth. B.C. means "Before Christ," and A.D., anno Domini, is the Latin phrase translated "in the year of our Lord."
No other person has influenced the world for good more than Jesus Christ. Wherever His true message has gone, great changes have taken place in the lives of men and nations. One writer described Christ’s influence in this way:
Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the center-piece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched and all the navies that ever were built, and all of the parliaments that ever have sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life, Jesus of Nazareth.
People followed Jesus – they listened to him and were transformed by him.
In the book of Acts – the people Jesus influenced were commented on by a secular source – "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also."—Acts 17:6.
These are the men who have turned the world upside down.
The secret of Jesus’ incredible influence and success is all wrapped up in his identiry as the son of God.
He says this himself.
John chapter 10 and verse 30 . 30 I and the Father are one."
JN 8:54 Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.
JN 10:25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one."
Jesus also said:-
JN 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
What this raises for us is the possibility of having a deeper awareness on the character and the person of God as our Father.
Out of a perfect knowledge of God as Father Jesus Christ changed the world for ever in partnership with the Holy Spirit.
What God wants us to do as we explore the Father heart of God is to open up to the incredible relationship that is available with God and as we do that it will be life changing.
