What Matters Most About God the Father
God in Five Weeks
Wildwind Community Church
October 8, 2006
David Flowers
Last week we defined “Trinity” and looked at the Biblical support for the idea of a Triune (3 in 1) God. Today I want to talk to you about the first person in the Trinity, God the Father.
When you read the New Testament, references to divine beings essentially fall into four categories. There references to the Father, references to Jesus (or the Son), references to the Holy Spirit, and general references to deity that simply use the term God. In most of these cases it appears that the writers were speaking of God the Father. But for the sake of clarity this week in looking at God the Father, I studied ninety verses in the New Testament that all refer specifically to God the Father. I asked four questions during this study.
What are the characteristics of God the Father?
What is the Father’s relationship to the Son?
What is the Father’s relationship to the Spirit? And
What is the Father’s relationship to human beings?
It is the second and fourth of these questions that I want to focus on with you this morning – the Father’s relationship to the Son, and his relationship to human beings. Of course next week when we talk about Jesus (God the Son) we will examine even more closely the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
Because that’s what it all comes down to. The Trinity is understood to be an expression of God’s relationship to Himself. Now that sounds ridiculous, but it’s not. After all, you have a certain kind of relationship to yourself. You have certain impressions of yourself, feelings about yourself, aspirations for yourself, and understandings about yourself. So does God, and these are expressed in the idea of Trinity.
Since Trinity means 3 in 1, you cannot meaningfully divide them up in order to talk about them. In fact, since Trinity is really an expression of God’s relationship to himself, you MUST examine the relationships between the three persons of the Trinity in order to learn anything about particular persons in it. So it is that we cannot understand God the Father without looking at his relationship to Jesus – God the Son. And we cannot understand Jesus the Son without looking at his relationship to the Holy Spirit.
When we are talking about the Trinity, God the Father is always the initiator. He is the first cause, what I like to call the prime mover. God has life in himself.
John 5:26 (NASB)
26 "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
To have life in yourself means that your life did not derive from anyone, or anything, else. It is to be self-existent. In other words, God did not “come from” anywhere. He did not originate anywhere, and was not created by anyone or anything. There never was a time when the Father did not exist. God the Father was in the beginning. Understand that as, “In the beginning, when everything around us got its start – when the wheels of the universe were set in motion –God ALREADY was.” Though our universe had a beginning, God himself did not. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1:
Genesis 1:1 (NASB)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The creation account is the story of how the universe came to be, not how God came to be. This is an incomprehensible but an essential truth. There is the incredible account in Exodus when Moses asks God his name. God’s response is striking and without precedent in all history.
Exodus 3:13-14 (NIV)
13 Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ’The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ’What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?"
14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ’I AM has sent me to you.’"
God’s name isn’t Steve. God’s name isn’t George or Bill or Bob or Ted or Tim or Phyllis or Marie or Anita or Jane or Rachel. Those are human names that have meanings. God’s name is more awesome than that. But how awesome is it? God’s name isn’t Awesome One, or Great One, or Mighty One, or Dances with Stars, or One Clothed In Light. Those are all awesome names, but God is beyond all of that, because all of that attempts to describe him. When God gives his name, we realize that God’s name isn’t a term of description; it is a term of being. What is God’s name?
I AM.
It is stark, and mysterious, and awesome not in the surfer “awesome dood” kind of way, but in the true sense of what awesome means. It is holy and reverent and, by its sheer inaccessibility and incomprehensibility and unfamiliarity, it is just a little bit scary. We realize here that God cannot be defined and that if we tried to define him, the closest we could get is this eternal, present-tense verb indicating existence or being. I Am. He has life in himself. He just IS.
We have to begin with this understanding of the Father. The Father is I AM. Now when we talk about the Son and the Spirit we’ll realize that, like the Father, they too have no beginning and no ending, but what’s interesting is that even though the Son and Spirit are also eternal beings, we read in John 5:26 that the Father has “granted to the Son to have life in himself.”
John 5:26 (NASB)
26 "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
In other words, the Son has always existed because the Father has willed that it be so! We even read that the Son exists because of the Father. That’s what Jesus said!
John 6:57 (NIV)
57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
Jesus said he lives BECAUSE OF the Father. Somehow the life of the Father sustains the life of the Son.
So if the Father willed that the Son would have life in himself, and if the Son lives because of the Father, then doesn’t that mean there was once a time before the Father willed the Son to have life in himself? If the Father’s life is the CAUSE of the life of the Son, then doesn’t that mean there was once a time when the Son did not exist but the Father did, and then caused the existence of the Son?
Strangely, the answer to that is no. Now my intent here is not to confuse you, it’s to help you understand what we believe is the nature of God, and we believe the nature of God cannot be explained. We believe the nature of God is a mystery that defies probing. We believe God is an eternal Father of an eternal Son. So Jesus’ life is derived from the life of the Father, but it has always been so. Yes, Jesus life comes from the Father’s life, but there was never a time when it did not.
Because of this eternal Father/Son relationship, God the Son is equally God with the Father, but yet serves God the Father. The Son is always pointing to the Father, giving glory to the Father.
John 6:38-39 (NIV)
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
The Father sent the Son to the earth, and the Father revealed his will to the Son. So Jesus was at the same time God, and God’s agent, on the earth. He was not here on his own account, he was here to represent the Father and to carry out the Father’s plan.
Which leads to my next point this morning. It was the Father’s will that the Son suffer and die.
Galatians 4:4 (MSG)
4 But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son…
Galatians 1:3-4 (NIV)
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
So the plan for Jesus to come to earth, and the plan for Jesus to suffer and die, was God the Father’s. Jesus – God the Son – expresses this understanding many times in the Gospels, but perhaps nowhere is it more compelling than in his struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest and crucifixion.
Matthew 26:39 (NIV)
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
Jesus birth, suffering, death, and resurrection were according to the will, and the plan, of God the Father. Remember, we are talking about God’s relationship to Himself. Jesus did, and does, nothing apart from the Father.
And this is where I want us to roost for the last section of this message. God the Father has many attributes. The Father alone knows when the end of history is coming (Acts 1:7). The Father judges no one but entrusts all judgment to the Son (Jn 5:22). The Father is unchanging, compassionate, kind, merciful, peaceful, truthful, loving, and gracious. (2 Jn 1:3, James 1:17; Eph 2:7). But when it comes down to knowledge we can walk out of here and apply immediately, there’s nothing more practical than the knowledge that out of his love for you, God the Father sent His Son to the earth to pay an awful price for your sin, and for mine.
John 3:16-17 (NCV)
16 "God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.
17 God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.
God’s plan was to save the world through His Son. That’s why Jesus came – to fulfill the plan the Father made out of his love for you.
It would not be God’s will this morning that we have an academic discussion about God the Father and never relate it to his plan to save your life through His Son Jesus. That’s what all of this is about, why it’s worth spending time talking about who the Father is. Because the most important thing about who God the Father is, is that He is the eternal I AM whose top priority was to make a way for you to have a relationship with him.
Let’s look at this for a moment. I sat in my office a couple weeks ago with a couple who were telling me with enthusiasm about their spiritual journeys. They shared about how much they are opening up to God, how they really wanted to stay on this track for themselves and their family, and how excited they were to be at such a different place in their lives. I bluntly just asked them, “Are you prepared to formally commit your life into the hands of God, to ask Jesus to be the forgiver of your sins and the leader of your life?” They both responded, “Well, we want to do that, but we feel we don’t know God well enough to do that yet.” I explained, “Let’s imagine a sports hero you admire were outside my office door and I were to say, “So and so is outside and wants to meet you. Can I introduce you? What would you say.” They said right away, “We’d say heck yea, let’s do it!” I said, “Right. It wouldn’t make any sense to say, “Well, I’d love to meet him but I don’t know him well enough to meet him yet.” Immediately they understood what I was talking about and within a few moments we had spent some time in prayer and they had kicked off this new phase of their journey by inviting Christ into their lives and committing themselves completely to him.
Many people respond this way to the idea of committing their lives to Christ. They say, “I don’t know enough about the Bible yet.” “I haven’t been going to church long enough.” “I can’t promise I’ll never sin again.” “My husband or wife isn’t ready right now.” There are all these reasons for not taking this step, and I think they often have fairly good intentions behind them, but folks I want to make sure you hear this clearly. We believe God the Father wants to know you. We believe his desire to have you close to him led him to send his Son Jesus to this earth to suffer and die and pay the price for your sins. Sins that, as long as they were not paid for, would forever drive a wedge between you and God. We believe that the greatest way you can live your life is by saying Yes to the Father’s invitation to begin this new kind of relationship with him. Not to find reasons NOT to, but to take that step of faith and trust that everything you still need to learn, all the things you still want to make better in your life, will all be more likely to happen with God leading your life than with you leading it!
Whether today, tomorrow, or a year from now, something like this requires faith. You can stand on the pool ladder dipping your toes in for two hours, but when you finally jump in, you cross a threshold. Out of the water one instant, in the water the next. A skydiver can stand at the mouth of the plane, afraid to jump, but when he finally jumps, he crosses a threshold – in the plane one instant, in the sky the next. All the waiting we do, everything that leads up to these key moments in our lives, will never ease us into them. The fact is before you commit your life to Christ, you are at a threshold and when you make that commitment you cross the threshold. And whether it takes you ten years or ten seconds to decide you’re ready and willing, the crossover happens in a moment.
My friends I want to urge you to consider crossing that threshold this morning. Another week won’t make it easier. Learning more about the Bible won’t make it easier. Hearing more sermons won’t make it easier. After all of that is done, you’ll still be standing at the same threshold and faced with whether or not you’ll cross over it.
Would you pray with me? If you are at this threshold this morning, I want to encourage you to cross over. No matter how long you wait, taking the step will make you nervous, but it can bring tremendous change into your life. If you are at the threshold, I just want to work through some ABC’s with you. I’ll give you some ideas and you can just pray silently to God in your own words.
A. Admit that you cannot run your own life and that you need to turn it over to God.
B. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God the Father and that God planned His death and resurrection to pay the price for your sin so that you could know God personally.
C. Confess your sin to God and ask God to help you begin to learn to live without sin in your life.
D. Determine to live from now on as consciously for God as you used to live for yourself.
Amen. Now if you have done that, I want to congratulate you. You may feel different, like a huge weight has been taken off your back. You may not feel different at all. But it’s not about how you feel, it’s about a spiritual reality you have encountered and that has power to change your life. Let me close by giving you three last important letters.
E. Expect setbacks. You do not become perfect when you commit your life to Christ. Not even close! But you then have God’s Holy Spirit living inside you, helping you want to learn about him and grow in your faith.
F. Forge ahead. Don’t allow setbacks to become permanent. When you sin and fail, pick yourself up, confess to God, receive His forgiveness (and forgive yourself), and keep moving.
G. GROW! Take classes at your church to learn more about how to live your faith every day. Take advantage of opportunities to learn the Bible and more about how to serve God with your life. I’d particularly urge you to start considering right now when you can take Discovery. Alpha would be good too if you want to learn some more basic stuff about your faith. You can start attending Alpha today!
