Pay close attention here. This will absolutely change your life, but if you are not careful, you might think this is just an ordinary Bible lesson of stuff you already know. So much of Bible teaching and preaching is all things you have heard over and over, so you’re not expecting to hear anything new. But this was new to me, and I think it will be new for most of you too.
The Bible has two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Still with me?
The Old Testament tells us about God – who He is, what He is
like.
He is the Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the
earth. He is infinite, all-knowing,
all-seeing, all-powerful. He is
holy. Mortal beings cannot exist in His
presence. Like driving into the
sun. Can’t be done under normal
circumstances.
Or as God Himself describes Himself: Exodus
34:6,7 (NASB95) 6 Then the Lord . . . proclaimed,
“The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity,
transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty
unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the
grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
The Old Testament tells us what God is like.
The New Testament tells us that this God is our Father. At least those of us who believe in Jesus.
I remember years ago when Jimmy Carter was President. He would be holding a Cabinet meeting with
all his important staff with Secret Service agents standing at the door, and
his daughter, Amy, who was 8 at the time, would simply walk past the guards,
enter the room, and go sit on her daddy’s lap while he was conducting the nation’s
business.
When Jesus came, He proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God. No, this was not some kingdom where He was
going to sit on a throne some time in the far distant future, and all the world
would be in peace and harmony. This
Kingdom of God was a major shift in how things work in the world now.
Yes, God is still God, God Almighty, creator of the ends of
the earth. But He is your Father.
Now this is why God created families.
People talk today about how getting married and having a
family isn’t for everybody, except that that is the best picture God can give
you about what His love for you is like.
It can be really hard to see God as your Father and what that means
unless and until you have experienced that kind of love for yourself.
Now that works both ways.
As children, hopefully we are on the receiving end of a love
like that, and as adults, we are on the giving end.
You may ask, what about mothers? Any love that a father has for his children,
mothers have about ten times more.
So what exactly does that love look like? What does that mean?
There are two passages in Jesus’ teaching which shed the
most light on this.
The
first focuses on how much God, or the Father, wants to give us what is good for
us.
Matthew 7:9–11 9 “Or what man is there among you who, his son asks for bread, he won’t give
him a stone, will he? 10 “Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake, will he? 11 “If therefore you yourselves, being evil, know to
give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in
heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
The second passage is in Luke 15, where Jesus
tells us about a son who left home to be on his own and who squandered all that
he had in reckless living.
He returned home, hoping that he could just work
for his father, because his father’s hired hands were doing better than he was
doing.
Luke 15:20–24 20 “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long
way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and fell on his
neck and kissed him. 21 “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before
you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly
bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and
sandals on his feet; 23 and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and has come to
life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Notice the actions of the father:
His father was looking for him. No, he didn’t leave home to search him out,
but he was waiting expectantly for his return.
His father ran to meet him, he felt deep love for
him, he held him and kissed him.
He asked for no explanations, excuses, or promises.
He then called for a celebration.
Notice too that the man had slaves, but his son
was not one of them. Yes, I am fully aware
that Paul and other people in the New Testament regarded themselves as slaves
to God. I can’t teach everything in one
lesson, but I think it is more important to see yourself as a child of God first. Leave that slave talk until you get this down
first.
Now we commonly read this passage as a picture of
salvation, an event that happened in the past, but we miss its present
relevance.
God wouldn’t have created families to give us an
image of fathers and then reveal Himself as father if that only applied to a
single event. There would be no need for
the elaborate picture that families offer.
What am I saying here?
I am saying that the greatest joy of being a parent
is just being with our children. I believe
what God wants from us most is to just be with us.
Oh, yes, He is everywhere at all times. Like broadcast waves are everywhere. But they are not all tuned into the right frequencies.
I
thought about titling this lesson: Hanging out with God. That’s what I have been doing lately. Hanging out with Jesus. My older brother. (Romans 8:29 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among
many brothers;)
And hang
out with my Father.
I ask
Him in the morning: so what do you want to do today? And I talk to Him like I would talk to
anybody who was accompanying me during the day.
About everything. I think it
would be hard for me to pray in public, because I have already been talking to
God all along, and it would seem strange then to address Him in some formal way
like most public prayers are.
But all
this has been new for me. I have been teaching
a class on the gospel of Matthew, and I am learning more than the class is. Teaching forces me to think through
everything I read, and I understand things better than I did before.
When
Jesus came, He started teaching everybody how things are now in the Kingdom of
God. And this God they read about all
these years is their Father. And yours
too. Be conscious of His presence with
you at all times and talk to Him like you would talk to your other father if he
were to be with you all day too.
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