Sermon Central
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What Does Father Mean To You? Series
Contributed by Dale Pilgrim on Jun 17, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: Father conjures up wonderful memories for many and dreadful realities for others. Let’s get to the heart of Fatherhood God style!
Intro
Play DVD - Fatherhood (MediaShout.com)
•Wishing everyone a Happy Father’s Day is risky and sometimes out of place it seems – images of Father conjure up different images drawing different reactions by various people.
•Before this message is finished I am hoping everyone here will leave celebrating and feeling “It is a Happy Father’s Day”!
Why do we hear the sad story of some people in the DVD clip? A picture of
1. The First Adam - likeness lost
•Key verse - 3
•The problem goes back to Adam.
•Two images of relationship with God.
•1st Adam (first parent of the human race)
•Adam was the likeness of God. That likeness was greatly marred if not completely lost because of sin (elaborate)…
•John Gill Commentary says “he came short of that glory of God, and could not convey it to his posterity”
•Know the story of Cain and Abel – Cain murdered Abel. The best chance Adam had in molding a child in the image of God was murdered. Adam had many other offspring but it has been suggested that they were so corrupt and like wild beasts in their behaviour that they are not mentioned by name. (Shalshalet Hakabala, apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 212.) The only offspring mentioned are those of the seed of Christ.
•And then there was Seth! Seth was the image of his earthly father.
Illustration: (Friendly tone): “He’s just like his dad”! Then there’s (sarcastic tone): “He’s just like his dad.”
•Seth was just like his dad - resembled the closest likeness of God that ever walked the face of the earth. Yet, the sad truth is with us as outlined by one source: “Adam was made in the image of God; but, when he was fallen and corrupt, he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail, mortal, and miserable, like himself; not only a man like himself, consisting of body and soul, but a sinner like himself, guilty and obnoxious, degenerate and corrupt. Even the man after God’s own heart owns himself conceived and born in sin…”
•The pain of Adam’s heart must have run deep, to realise that had he been in complete union and fellowship with his Father, he could have born his children in the likeness of God.
•The best attempts of any of us father’s is still completely removed from the original likeness of Father God which was his plan.
How deep our remorse that we cannot convey the likeness of God to our children; that our best efforts are weak and imperfect attempts; that no matter how desperately we want to be the likeness of God for them to pattern their lives after, we are going to fumble the ball of godly character repeatedly.
Illus: Anyone here recall moments when you wish “If I had that moment back, I would…”
If we will have any hope of redemption, any aspiration to God-likeness we must face this truth – we are fallen and at our very best, it won’t make the mark.
I’m getting to the good news of Father’s Day! We’re almost there! Some of you are thinking “my dad has been a great influence on my life. Been there, showed me how to be godly…”
Others of you are thinking how “he was never around; beat up on mom; drank a lot and put me down…”
Maybe dad you feel you’ve let your children down; or you’re a child who can’t find anything good to say about your dad; someone maybe be thinking that dad wasn’t too bad but I’m disappointed he wasn’t more. I’ve got good news! God knew how each of us would feel that speaks to where we are about relationships in the family and that we’ve been cheated because of Sin. So God put his plan in motion to fix the problem.
2. The Second Adam - likeness lived
2nd Adam (Christ, the first begotten Son of God) Begotten means born of God, born of the Virgin Mary. Also means “not only prior to {creation} in time, but above it in power and authority.” (Source unknown) God birthed one Son in this world by supernatural means!
•Key verses (relationship between Jesus and the Father)
•Notice how in every respect, Jesus is the absolute image of God!
Illus: Like Father, like Son!
Illus: Oh, he’s Melvin all over! He’s not like his dad – he is his dad!
In this case it is The Son IS the Father – their likeness so connected
John Darby: “He was not like an independent being…The Son is in full union with the Father, does nothing without the Father, but does whatsoever He sees the Father do.”
Remember Jesus in the synagogue, in church on the Sabbath? He was taking on the religious leaders about healing on the Sabbath. He was essentially saying, “How can I not heal on the Sabbath? I see my Father do it so I do it! I do what He does and tells me to do!” It was like Jesus was saying “I can’t help myself! Even if I decided I didn’t want to do this I could not avoid doing this!”
