I once heard the story of a teacher who called the home of a student that had not come to school that day and said, “Is it true Billy can’t come to class today because of a cold?”
On the other end of the line, a young voice replied, “Yes…”
“To whom am I speaking?” the teacher asked.
The same voice answered, “This is my father.”
Sunday is Father’s Day, which will give occasion for many of us to celebrate, honor, and perhaps even impersonate our dads. But for some of us, Father’s Day also provokes complicated or even negative emotions. How do we see our dads well? And how does this impact the way we love our heavenly Father?
As we continue in the second week of our Journey Home series from John 14-15, we will see Jesus radically reshape the way most of us view fatherhood. But these few, simple statements contain words we all need to hear because they profoundly impact the way we know God as Father.
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Notes Transcript Video Audio iTunesGrace Fellowship Church
Jon Stallsmith
Series: A Journey Home
June 16, 2013
Know Your Dad
John 14:1-11
It was really sweet. Daniel Rainwater (Randy’s son) got married on Friday night. It was a beautiful ceremony. They did it out at Grace Monroe. Buddy came out and prayed blessing over the couple. It was part of the ceremony. It was good to see Buddy up and moving and out and about. This is good news. Keep praying. Buddy is still healing. The Lord has been so good to answer our prayers, so we’re just going to keep praying that the Lord will bring him to fullness of health.
If you have your Bible, open it up to John, chapter 14. If you don’t have a Bible, slip up your hand. We will give you a Bible. It will be useful this morning and forever. If you need a notes sheet we have those also, so you can raise your hand and we’ll give you a notes sheet, or if you would like one of the orange books to go with A Journey Home, raise your hand.
We’re opening the Scripture here on Sunday morning and getting into the Word. That’s important and powerful, but it’s during the week in those Grace Groups where things are really growing deep, and you get to process; you get to talk about what the Lord is teaching you. One without the other just doesn’t work as well as both of them together. So even if you missed last week, go out in the foyer, find somebody at the big table, and they can help you get connected with a Grace Group.
How many guys actually did a Grace Group this week on week one? Yes! Bless you for raising your hands. How many guys did your British accents? That’s an inside joke. If you didn’t go to Grace Group, then you have no idea what I’m talking about, but if you did, you were probably embarrassed by having to say a couple of things in a British accent. But don’t let that deter you. I think that was just week one. If you’re just starting this week, we won’t make you speak in a British accent in your Grace Group.
All right. Happy Father’s Day. Amy and I do not have any children of our own yet. We love being at a place like Grace, though, where there are so many young people, students and kids. We feel like we’ve gotten to invest and, in some ways, be like spiritual parents, but it’s great, because we’ve never had to change a diaper…yet. That’s an advantage. Nonetheless, even though we don’t have our own kids, I felt like the Lord really prepared me for preaching this morning by giving me a few “dad” moments this week, a few “dad” experiences.
The first one happened when we were getting ready for Daniel Rainwater’s wedding. I set out some dress pants and a shirt and everything else. These were some great pants. I love these pants. I wore them in college all the time. So I was getting ready to put my shirt on. I put the pants on. I didn’t even get close. You know, sometimes you think, “Well, these will stretch out a little bit,” so you kind of suck in. I mean, there was like that much from the button to the loop to get it in. I said, “Honey, I don’t think I ever wore these in college. These are some other skinny person’s pants from long before.”
Then I was over at Lowe’s. I had to pick up some PVC pipe. Plumbing is right next to yard tools, so I saw a weed whacker head on the way to the plumbing section, and it was this attachment that would enhance everything about my lawn care. It started to call out to me. I passed it by the first time, I got my PVC pipe, but on the second time it got me as I was going out toward the register.
So I bought this and brought it home, and I told Amy I had gotten myself her Father’s Day gift for me. This is where the “dad” moment really began to kick in. She was like, “What makes it so great?” I started to explain about the string and the swiveling heads and everything, and I actually did something I’ve heard my dad say before, which is, “You know what? Actually it’s pretty complicated. I’m not going to try to explain this all the way.” Amy looked at me, and she goes, “It’s a weed whacker.”
Then last night I was getting the dishes ready and cleaning up the sink and everything else to go to bed, and for whatever reason the water was not going down the drain. I’m going, “Oh nuts. I’m going to have to fix this.” So we’re going by Walgreens to pick up some Drano on the way home. So all of these “dad” moments, even though we don’t have our own kids. I feel kind of connected to that “man of the house” feeling.
It’s good to be a dad. We’re going to see probably one of the most profound passages in the entire Bible about fatherhood. It’s definitely my favorite in the Scripture about fatherhood. Just before we start reading, to remember our context a little bit, we’re in the second half of the gospel of John, John, chapter 14. It’s right in the middle of Jesus’ farewell address to his disciples before he goes to the cross the next day.
He has just washed their feet, he has given them the new commandment, and now he’s beginning to coach them, to tell them, to instruct them what they need to know when he leaves. Last week we saw the beginnings of those statements. He said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust God; trust me. I’m going to prepare a place for you, and in my Father’s home are many, many rooms.”
We talked about how Jesus gave us this great promise of a home in the presence of the Father forever, of course when we die, but also that phrase the Father’s house refers to the temple. For the Jews, the temple was the place where God’s presence dwelt. Jesus is saying, “I am preparing a place for you, a home for you, in the presence of the Father.” It’s powerful stuff. We’re going to read all the way through verse 11, John 14:1-11, and then we’re going to talk about it.
Jesus says, “‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.’
Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.'” (John 14:111)
There are two things to talk about this morning. First, the way to the Father, and second, the ways of the Father. Then we’ll respond to the Scripture at the end of the service. In verse 5 Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” In this moment Jesus has just said, “You know the way,” and Thomas is saying, “I don’t know the way.”
I can identify with Thomas here personally. There are mornings I wake up and go, “Man, I don’t know the way through today.” There are other times when I’m sitting in a room, or I’m in a season of life, or I’m with a group of people, and it feels like really important stuff is happening, spiritual stuff, godly stuff, and everything else, and I’m just not tuned in or connected. Everything is happening all around me, and I’m not catching it. I’m like, “I don’t know the way here. I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know exactly what I’m doing. What’s the destination? What’s happening? I just need to know the way.” That’s what Thomas is asking for here.
We have to remember Jesus has just told them the destination: the Father’s house. He’s going to the Father’s house. Thomas is going, “I want to know that.” What we see is Jesus saying, “I’m going to the Father’s house” is not just a place, a realm; it’s actually Jesus is going to be with the Father through death and resurrection and ascension. He’s going home to the Father. We talked about home last week, that place in the presence of God…
The journey home is not just a journey to a place or a time; the journey home is the journey to the Father, the journey to God himself, knowing God in the most profound ways and him knowing us deeply also. That idea of going to the Father, the journey to the Father, not just when we die but in our lives now, knowing God in the presence of God the Father, for some of us is exciting. We go, “Oh yeah, I want to know the Father. I want to know God. I’m going forward.”
For others, that word father is a really loaded word. You hear the word father, you hear the word dad, and you think about your earthly dad growing up. Some of us had great dads. Some of us had dads who were not as great. Some of us really didn’t even know our dads. Some of us had dads who were there, but they weren’t there. They were emotionally or mentally absent from the family.
The tendency we have is to see God through the lens of our earthly dad. If we call God our Father, it’s very challenging to separate that idea of father from the flesh and blood dad we had growing up. So here’s what we’re going to do. If you open up your book to page 30… Just take a few seconds and think about that for a minute. As we’re digging into the journey to the Father and knowing the father heart of God, we’re going to have to do a little bit of work just processing some of our own growing up father stuff.
So on page 30, if you have your book, do just the first box, part 1. List three or four descriptions of your dad, or the person who raised you, because we know not everyone had a father in the home growing up. Again, we’re going to take a little bit of time on this now. I’d encourage you to go back during the week and process it more deeply when you’re in your Grace Group. You can talk about it maybe with some of your friends. But just a couple of characteristics about your dad. Go.
Sometimes I wonder at these times if we should play like Jeopardy music. Okay, so we’re thinking about our dads growing up, our relationships with our fathers. You know, dads set the atmosphere of the home. Whether they’re there or they’re absent, in their presence or their absence, dads set the real atmosphere of the home. We learn growing up how to approach our fathers. If you didn’t really know your father, you still had authority figures in your life.
So just think through. When you needed something or you had a request or you just wanted to spend time with your dad, you learned, based on your dad’s personality and characteristics and just the way he’s wired, how to approach your dad. We all learn growing up a way to our fathers. I remember when Amy and I were dating, actually just at the very beginning. We had been friends for about a year, and then the little blossom of romance sprang out of the soil of our relationship. I was like, “Whoa, that’s surprising. That’s wonderful. Wow, I really like this girl, and now I have a crush on her.”
We talked a little bit about going on some dates, and I knew before we really went down that road I needed to talk to her dad, just to get to know him a little bit and let him know my intentions in dating his daughter and everything else. I was living at Buddy’s house, and I got Amy to give me her dad’s cell phone number. I had met Marshall a couple of times. He was a great guy, but we didn’t know each other very well.
So I’m standing outside of Buddy’s house, which has notoriously poor cell phone coverage provided by a company that will remain unnamed, but it involves three letters and an ampersand. I’m sitting there looking at my phone, and I hit call. I’m nervous, you know. I’m approaching her dad. Oh boy. How’s this going to go? Three, four rings. Voice mail. Okay, good, good. That’s excellent. The beep occurs. “Hey Marshall, this is Jon Stallsmith, and, you know, I just wanted to call and talk about Amy. I had a couple of questions for you. Give me a call back. Thanks. Bye.” Like that.
A few minuets later my phone rings. It’s Marshall. Deep breath. I pick up the phone. “Hey, Marshall. How are you doing? It’s Jon.” He’s talking to me. “Great, great.” We chat a little bit. It’s very pleasant. Then I said, “You know, Marshall, I just wanted you to know that over these last couple of months my heart has really warmed toward Amy romantically, and we’re thinking about dating a little bit. I just wanted to maybe get together with you and talk about that and hear your heart and get coffee, or something like that. So how does that sound?” Silence.
I look at my phone. It’s still connected. He goes, “Yeah…uh…yeah, okay. Yeah, uh, yeah, let’s go get Starbucks tomorrow.” “Okay, great. Starbucks tomorrow, 2:00.” Click. Now I’m worried. We meet at Starbucks. We’re ordering our coffee and everything else, and I’m talking to Marshall. He’s really happy to see me, and it felt really natural. I was like, “Thanks for meeting.”
He goes, “Yeah, totally. I’m sorry if I was a little weird on the phone last night, but you know, when I listened to your voicemail I thought you said you were calling with some questions about our dog Phoebe. So when you started talking about Amy, it just totally caught me off guard.” We had a great conversation. Obviously, Amy and I ended up getting married, and Marshall and Elaine are two of the best in-laws you could ever ask for.
It’s just really easy as we’re thinking about approaching the Father, the way to dads… It’s easy to get that all crisscrossed. The communication can go awry, or the personalities can’t quite mesh, and all of a sudden you’re just not connected or communicating really clearly. This week I was asking a number of people about how they learned to approach their dads if they needed something, or they wanted to talk to their dad, or they wanted to ask for something, or had a want, or something like that.
I said, “Okay, what was your strategy when you approached your dad growing up?” These are some of the responses I got. One guy said, “When I came to my dad, I felt like I always had to have all my stuff together.” Maybe that was you growing up. A young lady said, “I always wanted my dad’s attention, but I didn’t want him to know how badly I wanted his attention.” Another young lady said, “I never really knew my dad.” Another guy said, “Yeah, with my dad, we joked a lot, we could talk about sports, but it was always pretty shallow. It never really went deep.”
Another young girl, her father left at a pretty young age, so when she thinks of that there’s pain, but the overarching sense is redemption, that the Lord has totally redeemed that aspect of her life. Another guy said, “As long as I was winning, if I was performing well, I felt like I had a good approach to my dad.” Some people were sharing and said, “I kind of tolerated my dad. Like he would say stuff, but I’d always take it with a grain of salt because I didn’t really respect him.”
For me, I love my dad. We had a great relationship growing up. I felt like he was very warm and that he trusted me with a lot of responsibility. I remember when I was learning how to drive. I was like 15-1/2, at least 2-1/2 years too young to even be behind the wheel of a 4,000-pound machine, but whatever. Stick shift, you know, the Saab.
We were down in Chicago, because I had some baseball things happening in Chicago. So we’re driving around in Chicago. For me the stick shift was a lot of coordination, because I had to figure out this pedal, that pedal, and something here and this and watch the road. It just was all quite confusing. In Chicago we’re driving along, and all of a sudden the traffic just stacks up. All red lights. I’m thinking as we’re rapidly approaching all of these cars, “How do I get this vehicle to stop? It’s something here and here, but also this.”
I could hear my dad over here. Actually, it started more with this foot stomp motion as he’s on the passenger side hitting the invisible brake. I’m sure at the back of his mind he was going, “I should have just driven in Chicago.” We get closer and closer and closer, and I’m trying to figure out how to stop this car. My dad goes, “You got to stop now. You got to stop.” So calm. I love that.
So we come screeching to a halt inches from the next bumper. I was like, “Maybe you should drive the rest of the way home.” He goes, “Okay. That’s a good idea.” So, I mean, my dad was there for me. I had a great relationship. But all of us grow up in our homes, and we learn strategies about how to approach our dads.
It was interesting talking to everyone I talked to this week and asking about their relationships with their fathers. They all came to the realization at some point that their fathers were imperfect and human. For some of them it happened very young; for others it was not until their teens or even their early 20s when they realized, “Wow, my dad is not perfect.”
The interesting thing is these strategies we learn in our homes end up shaping our whole lives, and our perspective toward the world and the way we act in the world often reflects the way we learn to approach our dads in the home. Here’s the thing. Open your books back up to the same page. We’re going to do boxes 2 and 3. In box 2 look back at those descriptions of your dad and draw a couple of conclusions. Process for yourself. “Because of that, I reacted by…” “My response to my dad was…” Fill in the blank.
Then when you finish part 2, go over to part 3 and think a little bit more about how maybe your relationship with your dad, or whoever raised you, influenced your relationship with authority figures in life. Again, I’d encourage you to go back and think a little bit more deeply on all this stuff, especially if you’re literally sitting next to your father right now. I don’t really want to write this at this second.
Here’s Thomas’ question. He says, “Jesus, I want to know the way to the Father.” As I was talking to people about their relationships with their earthly dads that are so influential in their whole approach to life, in their whole approach to God, even (the way we relate to our own dads impacts so deeply the way we relate to God the Father), it seemed like there were a couple of big categories, three bins into which most of the responses fell.
One of those bins was the “earn it” bin. If you went to your dad and you had a request or you had a question or you just wanted some time with him, sometimes some of you felt like you had to earn it. You had to show up with the right accomplishment, the right success. You had to be excellent in the area he valued in order for his affection to be yours. We could use the example of a report card. Most of us have been at school at one point or another in our lives. Just think about that. A lot of our parents valued how we did in school.
So you get that report card. It has A’s. It looks good. You’re like, “I can’t wait to get home, and hopefully my dad will see this.” You’re kind of holding this thing, and you get to the dinner table, and you put it out there in the middle of the table while you’re eating and drinking. Maybe they’ll look at it. Oh, they didn’t notice it. Okay, well then. “Oh, hi Dad. Oops, dropped my report card. Sorry.” You just want your dad to see this and say, “Wow! Good semester. Good job.” That’s kind of our strategy. Some of us learned to approach our dads that way, through our success, by earning it.
Others of us felt a little bit more insecure, so we kind of avoided it. We felt with our dads like we didn’t measure up with the report card, so we’d get that thing and never really want our parents to see it, maybe hide it under the mattress. You’re definitely waiting until they ask to see it. You’re not going to accidentally volunteer a bunch of C’s and D’s. You keep that thing hidden away. And it’s not just grades. There all sorts of areas. But there is a sense sometimes where we don’t feel connected, so we just kind of avoid it.
There’s also a third option, a way to relate to our dads. This is also the option Jesus gives us when he’s talking about how we relate to our heavenly Father. Thomas asked, “How can I know the way to the Father?” In verse 6 it says, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” (John 14:6)
Jesus is saying, “Here is the way you approach the heavenly Father.” He says, “You can know it. Through me you can always come.” God the Father’s affection is not something you can earn. It’s not something you need to avoid. Jesus says, “I am the way. It’s not you. I am the way to the Father.” It’s not your achievements. It’s not your accomplishments. It’s not your success that is the way to the Father. It’s not your service to God. It’s not how many small groups you lead. It’s not how spiritual you are. It’s not how excellent you are. You don’t have to earn it.
Jesus says, “It’s not really about you at all; it’s about me. I am the way to the Father. I am the truth you need to stand on. I am the life to fill you up.” If we get really honest, that is a wonderful thing, because we all know deep down in our hearts there’s all sorts of junk. There’s sin and brokenness if you dig down in there.
We just know if we are left to our own devices, our own success, if we just show up with everything we can muster, hoping it will win the affection of God the Father, it’s never going to amount to more than a bunch of F’s on our report card. We’ve failed. We’ve fallen short of the glory of God. We sin all the time. We can’t just show up and say, “Hey, God.”
The beautiful thing about what Jesus says here is that actually, “It doesn’t depend on you; it’s about me. I am the way to the Father. When you come to the Father, he’s actually not looking at your report card; he’s looking at mine, and I made straight A’s. When he sees you, that’s what he sees, straight A’s. You can be comfortable here. His affection is poured out on you without ceasing. I am the way. Come to the Father through me. Simply receive it. Don’t earn it, don’t avoid it; just receive the love of the Father through me.”
Some people read that passage and it seems narrow to them. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” We think, “Oh, it’s so singular, so unique. Only one way? Really?” I’m just glad there is a way. God made a way for us to approach him as a loving Father. He made a way to deal with our sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus. That just blows my mind. How gracious of God. He didn’t have to do that, but he loved us so much… “For God so loved the world he sent his Son to die, so whoever believes in him would not perish but could have eternal life in the presence of the Father.”
The natural next question is…If Jesus is the way to the Father, if it’s not what we can bring to the table, not what we can muster, then what kind of Father is this? Some of us grew up in homes where Dad was pretty authoritarian, pretty strict. “My way or the highway. You have to do this and this and this.” So you just think through that lens. “I have to achieve this and this and this in order to go there.” Yet here’s Jesus saying, “No, just trust me. I am the way. Follow me. I am the way.” What? What kind of God is this? Is he soft, or is he actually so impossibly good I can hardly fathom it?
This is where Jesus begins to answer that question. Philip has the same question in verse 8. Philip said, “Lord, who is this? Show us the Father. That is enough for us.” Verse 9: “Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?'” (John 14:9) It’s interesting. Philip, when he says, “Show us the Father,” is asking for a pretty big request. John, chapter 1, says no one has ever seen God except for Jesus, who is with him. His Son has made him known to us.
The Old Testament talks about how no one has ever seen God and lived, apart from a few occasions where Ezekiel catches a glimpse into the throne room of God, or maybe Isaiah, or Moses on Mount Sinai. Other than that, God is this huge mystery. So Philip is saying, “Hey, just show us the Father. You talk about the way? Just show us the Father.” He says, “That will be enough for us.”
That word enough means to be deeply soul satisfied. Philip says, “If I could just see God, if I could just see the Father, if I could just know exactly who this God is, it would enable me to understand how to approach him. It would fix the way to the Father I’m taking. It would satisfy me in the deepest place. Just show me God.” Jesus looks at him and says, “Have I not been with you all this time? You still don’t know me.”
It’s interesting. Philip had a lot of exposure to Jesus, but exposure doesn’t guarantee maturity. Just because he has been there sitting with Jesus doing all this stuff doesn’t mean he has really grasped it or made it his own. When Buddy preached through this passage several years ago… If you miss his voice, go online and download some of the MP3s of his preaching. He did John a number of years ago. It’s powerful. He had this line written in there when he was preaching on this verse. He said spiritual exposure does not guarantee spiritual maturity.
Here’s Philip trying to sort this out. “I’ve been around you, but I don’t fully grasp it.” So Jesus says, “I’m going to make this very clear for you.” The second half of verse 9: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.” (John 14:9-11)
Here is Jesus giving all of us a brand new lens, the defining lens through which we are to understand and know the Father. Most of us by default, when we come to figure out relating to God and everything else, look through the lens of our earthly dads, or maybe the absence of our earthly dads. That’s always kind of there.
It’s like with these glasses our earthly dads are imperfect, so you have some scratches and some dust and everything else, so whenever you put them on and you look toward God the Father, you still see him through the lens of your earthly dad, and those imperfections, those blemishes and everything else are there, and sometimes they can be so much they cloud our vision and we have no idea the way to the Father because our eyesight has been so marred by earthly brokenness.
So here Jesus says, “Take those off. Don’t look at your earthly father to understand God the Father. Look at me. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. I define the Father’s character. I define the Father’s nature. When I work, when I speak, I am showing you the exact heart of God the Father.” “The exact imprint of his nature,” is what it says in Hebrews, chapter 1. You say, “I want to know God the Father. I just want to know God.” Jesus says, “Look at me. I am the visible image of the invisible God.”
It’s interesting, because sometimes we fall into this mindset (and the way we preach and the way we talk sometimes exacerbate this problem) where God is sort of the big angry bad cop who has all this wrath he wants to pour out on mankind because of sin. Then you have Jesus. who’s kind of like the good cop, your buddy, your brother, who comes down and says, “Hey, I’ll take all the wrath on myself so you’ll be okay.”
In our minds we’re like, “Hey, I’m cool with Jesus, but God kind of scares me. Jesus is a nice guy. God is just scary.” Sitting at the computer with a smite button ready to drop a piano on you, or something like that. Jesus says, “No, that is not the Father’s heart. Do you want to know the Father’s heart? Look at me. If you want to know who God is fully, clearly, finally, look at me. I show you in the flesh everything you need to know about God.”
It’s so powerful and so freeing to think that way. There’s such a deep oneness, the connection between Jesus and the Father, and it’s not even so much that God the Father sent his Son into the world to do this kind of dirty job of dying on the cross and rising again. Actually, the way the Scripture portrays it is that in Jesus God himself is accomplishing the task of making a way for us to know him fully and be in his presence forever.
This is God himself in Jesus, and when Jesus is talking about the oneness, he’s not speaking on his own authority. “The Father is doing his works in me.” He’s saying, “We are so deeply connected you can hardly distinguish between us. We are one. If you want to know the Father, if you want to know the way to the Father, look to me.” That’s powerful. That has to be our defining understanding of God the Father.
It’s not that the Father is soft on sin. I mean, think. Jesus hates sin; the Father hates sin. Jesus loves us so much he’s willing to pay the price of that sin; the Father has the exact same heart. Jesus says, “There are a couple of ways you can really know the nature of the Father displayed in my life.” In this passage he speaks about the words. “The words I say to you.” Then he says, “Believe also on account of the works.”
What have we learned so far in the gospel of John about the heart of God through the words of Jesus? There are a bunch of different ways we could do this, but one of the really powerful ways in the gospel of John… He has these seven “I am” statements echoing all the way back to when God gave his name to Moses in Exodus in the wilderness before the great showdown with Pharaoh. God says, “My name is ‘I Am.'”
Here’s Jesus now on the scene, and he’s elaborating. He says, “I am,” and the first one he says is, “I am the bread of life,” after he feeds the thousands of people on the green. He says, “Eat from me, and you’ll live forever.” That’s not just Jesus’ heart; that’s the Father’s heart, to provide bread, to provide what we need.
Jesus comes at the Feast of Tabernacles in John, chapter 8, and he says, “I am the light of the world.” That’s the Father’s heart too, to come to us in our darkness, to come to us in our lostness, and to illuminate the way and say, “You don’t know where to go? I can lead you out of this place. You’re lost? I can help you be found.” It’s not just Jesus’ heart; that’s the Father’s heart.
Jesus comes again and says, “I am the gate,” and he’s talking in the context of being a shepherd. In the ancient world the sheep pens were circular, and you’d lead the sheep in there for the night. There would be a hedge all the way around, and there would just be one area, the door to the sheep pen right here. The shepherd would sleep with his body across the threshold so no sheep could escape and be devoured by wolves and no predator could come in by the door to attack the sheep.
This is Jesus’ heart. “I lay down my life for you,” but this is the Father’s heart too. He lays down to protect us, to make sure we don’t escape somewhere crazy and to make sure nobody gets in to mess with us. This is the Father’s heart. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life. I call you by name. I lead you.”
It’s the Father’s heart to lead us and to shepherd us through life. As Jesus is revealing who he is, let these truths correct our understanding of God. If there’s any misrepresentation of the Father in our minds, let these words of Jesus expel them. God is the gate. He is the shepherd. He does provide bread. He is the light.
When Jesus comes to the scene where Lazarus has been buried and everyone is weeping, he says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” It’s the heart of Jesus to come to a situation that is so hopeless it seems to be rotting in a tomb, and he can call forth light and life and new hope. “Lazarus, come forth.” It’s not just Jesus; that is the heart of the Father.
When our lives are broken down and it feels like hope is extinguished, it’s dead and buried and rotting, the heart of the Father is to come alongside and say, “Life, come forth.” Everything Jesus does… He’s the way, the truth, and the life. The seventh “I am” statement is, “I am the vine.” We’ll get there in a couple of weeks. So through the words of Jesus we begin to understand, “Oh, now I’m getting the Father’s heart. The ways of the Father are becoming clear to me.”
Then he also says, “Believe on account of the works.” We look at what Jesus did, and we can see in Jesus’ actions the same perfect reflection of the Father’s heart, the turning of a shameful situation into one of honor with the water turned into wine, Cana in Galilee, the healing of the nobleman’s son just by speaking a word.
Jesus comes along, and there’s a crippled man at the pool of Bethesda waiting for the waters to be stirred. He might have a chance at healing. Jesus releases a flood of healing into this crippled man. Hope lifts him up. It’s a picture of the father heart of God. He’s not just sitting around waiting for this little stirring of the waters every once in a while. No, the father heart of God is releasing oceans of healing and restoration to anyone, even those who are sitting around saying, “I don’t have anybody to carry me in the water.” This is the heart of God.
Then Jesus feeds the 5,000. Again, God healing, feeding. Jesus walks on the water, and the disciples are in the boat. They’re in the storm. The waves are going up and down. It’s pitch black. The wind is blowing. Everything in this situation is out of control, and all of a sudden Jesus comes walking up, and he’s standing right on top of it. They’re like, “Isn’t this bothering you, Lord?” “Nope. I’m over all this stuff. This storm, this situation, does not rock my boat. I know it’s rocking your boat, but I am solid. I am steady. This is not going to shake me in any way.”
I always wonder about Jesus walking on the water. Did his robe get wet, or he is also kind of like Teflon, like water off a duck’s back sort of a thing? Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus’ death and resurrection… All of these things are reflections of the Father’s heart. The one that’s maybe most interesting to me is that here’s Jesus… They’re saying, “Show us the Father.” Jesus says, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. I am the perfect representation of his nature.”
What have they just seen Jesus do? John, chapter 13, before he goes into this discussion with the disciples, it says he took off his outer garment, set it aside, wrapped a towel around his waist, and then approached the disciples and knelt and began washing their feet. Jesus says this is a perfect representation of the Father’s heart.
Can you imagine if your dad came up to you and said, “I want to wash your feet”? For some reason it’s easier for me to understand Jesus doing that. Then I realize, “Wait. No, this is actually God’s heart too.” God himself is humble. God himself wants to approach us. When Jesus washed their feet, he was touching the dirtiest parts of their lives. There are times when I know, because I have this. It’s a rotten week. I’ve been a pill. I know I’m not walking in godliness in my heart.
I sit down to pray, and I think, “You know what? I don’t think the Father wants to hang out with me. I’ve been such a pill this week, and I have all this junk in there.” Here’s what Jesus does. He comes and says, “Let me see your dirtiest, nastiest, grossest, most stinky spot…your feet. Let me stoop down. Let me start washing that with you.” You’re like, “No, no. Don’t even touch that.” Jesus says, “No, no. Let me wash that.” That’s the heart of the Father.
When you go to the Father in prayer and you’ve had a rotten week and you feel like you’ve picked up all sorts of grime and junk, the Father says, “No, no, no. Let me cleanse that for you. Let me wash that for you.” This is the heart of God we have to grasp as we look at Jesus. The journey home is the journey to the Father, and the Father is a good, good father.
So what do we do? How do we respond to this? There are two things, as we’ve been praying about this as a team, ways to respond to the truth that Jesus is the exact, perfect representation of God the Father.
The first thing involves forgiveness. Forgiveness in the Bible is essential. Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Then he’s even talking right after that little teaching about how to pray, and he says, “Hey, by the way, I need to elaborate on that one point about forgiveness. Unless you learn to forgive other people, it’s going to be really hard for you to receive that forgiveness from the Father.”
So we have this crucial aspect of forgiveness. In the Bible forgiveness is actually a technical accounting term. It means literally to cancel the debt someone owes you. It’s a choice. It’s actually not a feeling. Sometimes we say, “I don’t feel like forgiving.” Well, usually we don’t, but we can choose to forgive.
What does it mean when we forgive? In the Bible it means we take that debt someone owes us, and we release the responsibility to be the debt collector. “I don’t have to make you pay for this anymore. I’m not going to be responsible for paying this debt. In fact, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to hand it to Jesus. I’m going to cancel the debt and let Jesus take care of it.”
It’s not letting that person off the hook. You’re actually entrusting the whole situation into the hands of One who is far more capable of dealing with it. He either deals with it through forgiveness on the cross, or if people never turn their hearts from their ways, then the Lord takes care of that too. Forgiveness is releasing that debt from us.
Some of us might need to forgive our moms and dads for some of the mistakes they’ve made. It doesn’t mean they’re a terrible mom or dad. Maybe you did have a really tough mom or dad, but forgiveness is crucial, releasing that debt. It opens the way for us to come to know God the Father in such a clearer manner.
Then others of us who are moms and dads or even kids and we’ve made mistakes… We need to receive forgiveness. We feel like we have a debt so big, we have so much junk on our feet, that coming to the Father, he’s going to reject us. We need to receive that forgiveness of God. First John says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The heart of God the Father is to come to those dirty places and wash them clean because of what Jesus did on the cross.
Some of us might need to do some of that kingdom business, do some of that work of releasing in forgiveness, whether it’s our own parents, or it’s someone else in our lives who’s influential, or it’s ourselves, to receive forgiveness for mistakes we’ve done, to just let the Lord come and cleanse us, forgive us, receive that love from the Father’s embrace.
The second thing that’s an important response is blessing. The heart of Father God through the entire Scripture is a heart of blessing toward his people. It starts in Genesis. It says he made Adam and Eve in his own image. The very first thing he does… It says he blessed them. He said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” The heart of God is a heart of blessing.
Even after Adam and Eve goof up… They sin. They’re expelled from the garden. The whole creation spirals out of control into wickedness, seemingly. God calls on Abraham and says, “Hey, I am going to bless you so you can be a blessing to the nations. My heart of blessing has not left.” What did Abraham do to earn that blessing? Nothing. How does Abraham respond to that? He receives it. “Okay, I’ll start walking.”
All through the Scripture… Moses gives to the priests in Numbers, chapter 6… He says, “Here’s the blessing that is God’s heart for the people, and you need to say this over the people as a priest. Say this over the people of Israel. Say this over the congregation. ‘The Lord bless you and keep you. May he cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Could the light of his countenance bring you peace.'” That’s the blessing of the Scripture. This is the heart of God toward his people.
Jesus, of course, in the New Testament… He’s the perfect representation of God, the exact imprint of his nature, and what do we see in Jesus? He’s blessing too. The Mount of Beatitudes… It’s probably clearer to say it’s the mount of blessings. Jesus says, “Hey, you who are poor in spirit, you’re blessed. You who are just flat broke, you’re blessed. You who show mercy and feel broken up about it, you’re blessed. You who are mourning and grieving brokenness, you’re blessed.”
Jesus just pours out blessing after blessing after blessing. Later on in the Gospels, the parents start wanting to bring their children so Jesus could bless the kids. They would say, “No, no, no,” and Jesus says, “Yes, yes, yes. Bring them here. Let me bless them,” because it is the heart of God to bless his children. That’s his desire. The whole nature of our relationship with God is him pouring out blessing, pouring out love, and us simply receiving it and living out of that reality.
I want to invite the band up. We’re going to respond to the Lord in worship here. We’re also going to do something a little bit different. We have a number of men we talked to this week. They’re godly dads, godly husbands, and we’re going to invite them to come stand across the front here. If you just need to hear the words of a blessing over your life, we’re going to have these men be here to pray prayers of blessing.
Maybe some of you guys grew up, and you never heard your dad say, “I love you.” You never heard your dad say, “I’m proud of you.” You never heard your dad say, “You did good.” You never heard that blessing from your father, so it makes it really hard for you to hear that blessing from the Father.
The men up here at the front want to pray the heart of God the Father over your life. They want to say out loud… I mean some of us can hear this spiritual encounter with God in our hearts, in our seats. That’s wonderful. Some of us need to hear the words out loud. So I want to invite you, as we’re responding in worship, to come forward. Receive the prayer of blessing.
Some of you guys have been craving… In your heart you want to have kids. You haven’t even had kids yet. You’ve been trying, and it just hasn’t happened for whatever reason. Remember the blessing of God is “Be fruitful and multiply.” Some of you guys just come forward. We can pray for fruitfulness in your life for having physical children. We can pray for your spiritual fruitfulness, spiritual moms and dads investing in others.
If you’re feeling broken and you just feel like, “Man, I’m not connecting with this whole God the Father thing. I have this place in my heart that just can’t receive the love of God.” Come forward and let the godly men who are involved in leading this church pray on behalf of God the blessing the Father feels for you. Let me close us in prayer.
Lord, we thank you for these words. Thank you that anyone who has seen you, Lord Jesus, has seen the Father. Thank you that your heart toward us is good and it’s a heart of blessing. Lord, we know we’ve all made mistakes. Sin can feel like a wedge separating us from you, but you have made a way for us to approach you through Jesus. Where forgiveness becomes a reality, sin is washed away, and we can experience the pure embrace of the Father.
So, Lord, I pray that right now in the power of your Spirit you would minister to our hearts like that, that you would touch our lives, you’d speak to us, you’d embrace us. Lord, I pray you would establish the truth of your heart of blessing over our lives, that every single one of us would know you’re not just God high in heaven; you are our Father who has a home for us, and you desire good for us, and you respond to us when we have needs, and even when we don’t, you just like being with us. Lord, would you do that in our midst right now. In Jesus’ name, amen.