Jesus Came So We Could See The Father
Why Jesus Came: Pt. 3
Michael Acock
8/30/09
Key Scripture: John 14:8-10
Introduction:
What does it mean that Jesus came to show us the Father? Why do we need to know the Father’s heart? Some examples:
1. Augustine Burroughs, The Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father, writes about the days of His childhood. As a seven-year-old child, he realized that whenever he’d try to crawl in his father’s lap, his dad would push him away. He writes that his father wouldn’t even look at the boy as he stared straight ahead at the television screen. The little boy kept a scorecard on a clipboard of how many times his father refused to cuddle with him, and it was close to 100 percent of the times attempted.
Hungering for his father’s presence, the boy took one of his father’s shirts and a pair of pants from his parent’s closet, stuffed the clothes with towels and pillows, and lathered it with his father’s cologne. At night, he would snuggle up against this father mannequin, pretending to be held and loved. He writes that one day his mother found the dummy, and simply returned the clothes to the closet, the pillow to the bed. Burroughs concludes, “over time, my father’s scents faded from the pillows until there was nothing left of him at all.”
2. A woman in our church: “ When I was seven years old, my father left my mom, sister and me. When I consider my earthly father, the word “father” does not have a loving, trusting meaning to me. My father left. He rejected me. Strong word, yes, but that’s how I felt and I still struggle with the feelings of abandonment. The word “father” only had a meaning of conditional love, and one that I felt I didn’t meet the conditions of. I felt that for some reason, I wasn’t good enough or worthy enough to be loved by my father, but I didn’t know why. As I grew up and learned all the facets of our God…I could see Him as my Savior, Lord, God, Spirit, Jesus, etc. but I couldn’t call Him my Father for quite some time. I wish I could say that I have it all figured out now, but I don’t. I can now call God my Father, but there is no relation to my earthly father. It’s almost like two of the exact same words with completely different meanings.
3. Donald Miller: To Own A Dragon- “ If an earthly father abandons his children and wrecks their lives, how much more would an abandonment from God destroy a human being? As I look at humanity, I can only describe the human personality as one designed for relationship with something from which it has been separated.”
This is why it is important that Jesus came to show us the Father. These stories probably represent most people in some way. We’ve lost connection with the Father.
I. Jesus came to show us the Father
- John 14:1-14 (The Message Bible)
- vs. 1-4 God is a Father. Jesus is leaving to do ‘family’ business. He is the only way to the Father. If we’ve seen Him, we’ve seen the Father. If you believe in Him, you believe in the one who sent Him. He will take us to the Father’s house. We will be with Him.
- The church is a family with a heavenly Father who sent His Son to make us sons. He came with a purpose from the one who sent Him. “From now on you know the Father.”
- vs. 5-8 Philip: “Show us the Father”. Thomas: “We don’t know where we are going. We can’t do this. We can’t follow you.” Aren’t we like this? I don’t know how this is going to end. What is eternity? How are we going to get there? I can’t follow Jesus.
- vs. 6-7 “I am the way (the road), the truth, and the life.” You don’t get to the Father except through Me.
- vs. 9-14 and John 12: 44-50 Believe in Me, see Me, Hear Me- you believe in the Father, You see the Father, You hear the Father.
- Saying “I believe” marks the difference between life and death.
- Hebrew 1:3 Jesus “is the exact image of the invisible God”
- Romans 8:16 “Abba Father” = Papa
- Mathew 6:7-13 “Our Father” = The word “our” connects us to each other and to the Father.
II. What is the Father like? And what does He think of us?
- Walden Hardenbrook: Where’s Dad? “When we look at the Father in scripture,
- We do not see a passive, uninterested father refusing to be involved.
- We do see, one who loves, one whose affection publicly burst forth from Heaven upon His Son. (Mark 1:11)
- We do not see someone uninvolved.
- We see one who initiates love toward His creation. John 3:16
- We do not see one who is content to have his family in discord, ripped apart by social chaos and anarchy.
- We see one who unifies, one whose love is called the “bond of perfection.” Col. 3:14
- We do not see one whom His son could not image.
- We see one who models, and a Son who could declare, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” John 14:9
- God, the Father put His Holy Spirit in us so that we can become His children and call out to Him as Abba Father. (Rom. 8:16)
- Some questions we have about the Father God.
- Is He a mother? Is. 66:13 “ as one whom His mother comforts, so I will comfort you?
- Is He multi-personality? What about the Trinity? God the father has come to us in Jesus Christ so that we might know Him and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
- Is every moment a teaching moment? Is He always trying to teach me something in everything circumstance? Is God this way? I think He just wants us to know Him, to be with Him, to be in His presence. Like a child that gets lost and just wants to look up and see his father, He just wants us to know that He is there with us.
E. My life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3) The Bible tells us that we are mysteriously united to Jesus so that everything that is true of Him, in relation to His Father, is also true of us…God see us in Christ, and His opinion of us is exactly the same as His opinion of the Lord Jesus. Do we feel that way?
- All earthly fatherhood is connected to God’s Fatherhood. (Eph. 3:14-15)
- God can give all of Himself. A.W. Tozier - “An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of his children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.”- God created us to have a father in our lives.
III. What do we think of Jesus and His relationship to the Father?
- He is perfect! How do I ever step into this? How do I ever see God loving me like He loved Jesus? Sometimes we separate the two. We think God is way off somewhere. We like Jesus because He came to us.
- Jesus is not an independent figure of greatness. Jesus is the Word of God, or He is nothing at all. The Father spoke Him. The Father and the Son are one.
IV. What do we think of our relationship with the Father?
- He loves me: He loves me not?
- Some ways that we think which are hindrances to being loved by God:
- You don’t really like me. I know you love me, but you have to, you are God.
- You don’t really accept me. If it weren’t for Jesus you wouldn’t even look at me.
- You don’t want me. Jesus saved me and Jesus likes me so you put up with me.
- You’re not really proud of me. You simply stop being annoyed with me when I do good things.
- We think Jesus is just holding God back from obliterating us.
- When we believe these things, it blocks us from receiving His love. We are living as sinners before a judging God, instead of living as one redeemed by the Father through Jesus Christ and sealed in the family by the Holy Spirit. What we believe is Huge!
V. Where do we go from Here?
Believe, See, and Hear the Father for you. It is for you individually.
- John MacMurray –Donald Miller – “John explains why life feels as it does (like we are designed for a relationship but separated.) He would ask us to believe that we have not been abandoned by God. God is not like our fathers, apparently. He did not leave because He was fed up with us. Nor did he slowly fade from our lives because He found something better to occupy his interest, It is the human race that He cares about, every one of us who walked away from our Maker. In Jesus’ words, He is like the anxious Father of the prodigal son, longing for us to return. Not because He is some emotionally weak God who needs affirmation from His creation, but because He so thoroughly loves us, And when we don’t return, He is like the Great Shepherd of our souls who goes out seeking us, even the one lost sheep.”
- Have you ever thought of God this way? Jesus came, and died because the Father loves us. Love moves God toward you. Essentially, love moves you to God. He first loved us that we might love Him. ( I John 4:9-19)
- We are a family, with a father who loves us eternally. We are brothers and sisters. Jesus came so that we might see that, to live in the reality of that, individually and in community.
- John 14:11-14 – We are called to do the Son’s work. We are in the work of the “sonship.” To lead others to the knowledge of the Father’s love. We are “in the beloved”. That means you are in the state of being loved by the eternal Father That should settle something in your soul. The Holy Spirit comes into your life and pushes away the darkness, so that the light shines in and you understand the gospel; that God gave Himself to us in Christ, and that we might become His sons and know His love for us. This is the message we take out to our community. This is our work as sons of God. Love sent the Son, Love sends us.
Discussion Questions:
Why is it not possible to come to the Father except through Jesus Christ? What does that say about people who say they believe in God but Jesus is not the only way?
Did your earthly father represent God’s image to you? How has that affected your relationship with God as a Father?
Do you tend to see God the Father as somehow different and separate from Jesus?
Are there some hindrances in your life and thinking that keep you from receiving the love of the Father?
According to Romans 8:14-17, what is the major work of the Holy Spirit in our lives?
