By Rev.
Brian Wilkie
Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
Rockland, Ontario
|
_______________________________________________________
PODCAST LINK to CFRA
broadcast - Sunday, May 25th, 2014:
http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/22365/good_news_106_may25.mp3
____________________________________________
Broadcast Notes:
*************************************************
‘What Kind of Father is God?’
Welcome to
Good News In the Morning a program of words and music bringing a Christian
message of hope and encouragement to those who are looking for intelligent
meaningful and spirited approach to faith and to life.
Good morning,
I'm your host today, Brian Wilkie of St. Andrew's Christian church in Rockland.
As always I want to start by thanking you our listeners. We are so grateful for
your encouragement and support. Please remember you can always visit our
website for materials to encourage and support you in your Christian walk. If
you miss an episode of the show you can go to our website and download the
podcast or the MP3 of our broadcast. This month we are expressing our
thankfulness to Wills Transfer Limited, of 3100 Swansea Drive in Ottawa. This
show and all the shows through this month are brought you by Good News
Christian Ministries and Wills Transfer who supported us with a generous
donation. Thank you so much for that.
Today as we
take a look into the word of God I want to look at the theme of, “What kind of
a father is our heavenly Father?” I'm
going to read to you a Scripture from the Old Testament from the book of Hosea.
God speaks his word to the prophet Hosea:
When Israel was
a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2
But the more I called Israel,
the further they went from me.
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.
3
It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
it was I who healed them.
4
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love;
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them. (NIV)
This is the
word of God, and I'm going to speak about the message of God's great love as
fatherhood towards his people. We're going to get into that in a few moments as
we take a look at the fatherhood of God of the Old Testament, the fatherhood of
God in the New Testament, and God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; but
first I'd like you to hear this hymn which expresses the theme of the
fatherhood God, “Eternal Father strong to save, from the collection A Celebration Of Hymns.
When we look
into the scriptures, the image of God as father is a very frequent one in the
Old Testament. God is like a father to Israel. God is like a father to the
fatherless. God is this father presented in Hosea, who teaches his child to
walk, who bounces his child on his knee, who cares for him and draws him, his
child with loving kindness. It is the God, too, who experiences the frustration
of fatherhood; who finds his children running away from him and is moved to
anger. But in the book of Hosea in the 11th chapter he declares to the people
of Israel, “How can I give you up? How can I hand you over? How can I treat you
as if I didn't love you? My heart is changed within me, all my compassion is
roused. I will not carry out my fierce anger nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
I am God and not man, the holy one among you. I will not come in Wrath.”
There is an expression
of God's fatherhood for us in his word. It's amazing, actually, to me, that
there's something about that passage which doesn't quite sound like I expected
it to. He says, “I am the Holy One, therefore I will not come in wrath. I am
God not man. My heart is changed within me.” I think that here we see something
astonishing about God when he uses the image of father. It's common today to
have a certain amount of concern about the fact that some people have not had a
good experience of fatherhood. Some people have had very bad, hurtful
experiences of an earthly father. If we imagined God based on our experience,
we might think that, as a father, he would be, because he's greater than humans,
that his anger might be greater; that his stubbornness might be greater; his
anger might be greater. But here God turns things upside down. He says, “Because
I am God, I'm not going to carry out my wrath. Because I am not a man but God, I'm going to
gather my people again even though they scattered from me.”
Isn’t that
astounding? Because he is holy, he is merciful. Does that sound as strange to
you as it sounds to me? When I was raised, I wasn't raised in a particularly
strict household. I wasn't raised with a Bible-thumping religion, nor fire and
brimstone sermons, but somehow I had the idea that God being holy was the
reason that he would be angry at me. But here he says, “Because I am holy I'm
going to turn from wrath and work to save you.” Isn't that amazing? Does that
turn your notion of holiness upside down? Does that help you understand that
God knows that the image of father is not always a positive one, but he wants
to be sure, when he uses that expression, that we know that he means wonderful
things for us by it. He wants to disabuse us of the notion that as a father he
is something other than the great and loving God who has worked to save us. That's
even in the Old Testament. Now, in the New Testament we have a great deal of
God's loving fatherhood expressed.
It's not a
fatherhood that is without its challenges. I think if you have been a mom or
dad you understand that that raising kids is a tough job. It sometimes does
require sternness and firmness. It requires difficult choices and sometimes it
does require being the ‘bad guy.’ Paul speaks about God's discipline for those
that he loves. The word discipline means training. He says that training is not
all that pleasant when you're going through it. Training means doing things
that are difficult, and being asked to challenge yourself by the one who trains
you. Paul says God trains the ones he loves. He wants those that he loves to
come through these challenges and be strengthened and equipped and enabled to
be filled with more of his spirit, to express more of his love and to know his
presence more securely. For this reason all the writers in the New Testament
speak of this loving God but they also speak of a God to permits us to go
through difficulties so that the our sufferings can create endurance, our endurance
can create character and our character can produce hope. Through it all we know
that the hope will not disappoint us because God has already poured his love
into our hearts.
As we continue
in thinking about the meaning of God's fatherhood we can take a look at Jesus'
teachings about his heavenly father. That's an important part of his message. When
Jesus teaches of God's knowing our needs before we ask, he teaches God the
father, as a daddy who knows what his children need. He says that if you as a
father had your child ask you for a piece of bread, would you give him a
serpent? No! Don’t be silly! If he asked for an egg would you give him a
scorpion? No, of course not! Jesus says that you, even though you're evil, know
how to give your children good things; even though there is sin and brokenness
in our lives; even though we can sometimes be selfish; even though we, as
parents, find ourselves often still growing up ourselves, we know that we want
to give good things to our children. “How much more,” Jesus says, “does your Father
in heaven want to you want to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?”
I've raised
one issue of fatherhood and parenthood as moms and dads that we ourselves,
perhaps as children, we look at our parents and we think about the mistakes
they've made. Then we find ourselves parents, in that same role, and discover
that the parents are still in the process of maturing. As parents we are still
in the process of learning and gaining wisdom. We find ourselves trying to
teach our children skills that we didn't learn in our childhood. We’re still
struggling to learn things and trying to teach those very things to our
children. It's a tough spot to be in and I think as we grow as parents we
sometimes grow in understanding of the struggle that our parents had.
How do we
learn to be better parents?
We can learn
from the example of our parents we were able to honor them and recognize the
good that they attempted to do. We can learn from the example of people around
us, as they raise their children, and we can learn from the teachings of Scripture
about what God, as our parent, is doing for us. We learn from the lessons of
Scripture that being a father is hard for God, just as it's difficult for us. In
the story the prodigal son we have a father who waits for his wandering child
to return and wonders how he's going to return. Now God the Father is in a
different position than we are when we go through those struggles, but we have
Jesus teaching us that he understands the difficulties we go through.
We’re going to
take a look at one more aspect of the Fatherhood of God as we continue, but
first I want you to listen to this song which one is sung by Glad and it's from
their album A Cappella Hymns. This song is called This Is My Father's World.
During the
first half of this discussion I’ve taken a look at some of the images of God as
father. Through the Bible, God is compared to many things and we call those
comparisons metaphors, or similes, depending on how they're phrased. They
identify that God is like something. Whenever we do a comparison we recognize that
God is like that thing we’re comparing him, to and he's also unlike it. So when
we come to the idea of God as father we can note that there are many other
metaphors that are used in Scripture. Jesus describes himself as being like a
mother hen trying to gather her chicks under her wing, but not being allowed to.
The chicks are being rebellious and
running away. God is compared to a lion of Judah. God is compared to a Lamb.
Jesus himself is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. We
understand that these are comparisons which point to an aspect of how God is
like these things, but recognizing that he's not entirely identical with these
things. We can and do see metaphors and images in Scripture of God as father, God
as a mother, and God as a brother. God revealed in so many different ways. But
the image of father is one that, in Jesus Christ, goes from metaphor to reality. God is the
father of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is his son. The word and in the in John 3:16 that describes Jesus
as the only begotten son describes God different in his relationship to Jesus
from any other person.
You see, we are creatures of God. We are made
from the materials of the created order, but Jesus is not created. All the
ancient church fathers spoke of Jesus as being generated of God or proceeding
from God, because he is one in substance with God, the father.
That old story
about Pinocchio is kind of like that. You know that Geppetto created a puppet.
He didn't conceive a son, he created a wooden puppet. Somehow or other it was
given life. The challenge in the Pinocchio story is for Pinocchio to become a
real boy. In creation, God made Adam and Eve, God made the human race and he
gave them life but they are not generated out of the substance of the Father. They
are made out of the materials of the universe. Jesus however is eternally with
the Father. Jesus is not created, he is of the same substance of the Father. He
is himself one of the three eternal persons of the Godhead. Jesus and the Father
are one. But when Jesus takes on flesh, God the father literally is his father.
Mary is his mother and God is his father. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, he is
truly the son of God. So when we look at Jesus’ relationship to his father we
have a special insight into how God the Father works.
I just want to draw your attention to what the
Father says to the Son in the New Testament, I just want quickly to look at a
couple of verses. Remember when Jesus is baptized and a voice comes from heaven
saying, “this is my son with whom I am well pleased.” The Father speaks
encouragement, speaks of his pride in his Son, His joy in his Son. Likewise on
the mount of Transfiguration, almost the same words are spoken. As Moses stands
there and Elijah stands there and Jesus stands there, the Father speaks about
his boy. He says, “This is my Son with whom I am pleased. Listen to him.” God
the Father looks at his Son with pleasure is proud of his boy, he loves him
with an everlasting love. He trusts him with the work that he's given him. He
sends Him to earth to do a difficult task, and together they accomplish the
salvation of the world. God has been so generous with his praise for his Son. What
kind of father do you think God is to us when he adopts us into his family? He is
the same joyful, proud father. He works in us to fit us for heaven, and he is
confident that with his love we will be prepared and spotless before him. God
loves us with the same love with which he loves his Son Jesus Christ.
Let us pray
together.
God help us to
know and experience your love. Help us to be changed by that love. Help us to
rejoice in that love. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.
Thank you
again for your encouragement support and the thank you for listening to us. This
week I want to encourage you to visit our website and make use of the resources
that are there. Today again we especially want to thank Will's Transfer Limited
whose generous support has enabled us to make these broadcasts this month. Will's
Transfer Limited is at 3100 Swansea Drive in Ottawa, again thank you so much.
Listeners
please be sure to worship in a church where the gospel is soundly proclaimed
and lived out with compassion, integrity and resolve. Now as we finish today
I'd love to have you listen to this song by Carolyn Arends which she sings to
one of her children and speaks to that baby about Your Father In Heaven.
Good News In The
Morning is produced in the Studios of News Talk Radio 580 CFRA.
- Rev. Brian Wilkie
________________________________________
To listen to the above
broadcast, click on the following link:
No comments:
Post a Comment