Father’s Day Sermon” The Uniqueness of Sonship”

John 3:16-19

It’s Father’s Day. Amidst the text messages and facebook post, most of us reserve a few moments to ponder quietly the father-son relationships to which we are most tightly tied. We ponder their joys, responsibilities, pains, disappointments, triumphs, and failures. We even think of their changing face as time marches on and the younger generation of sons becomes the new generation of fathers and of grandfathers, in some cases great-grandfathers.

Some elements of contemporary Western father-son relationships only go back about 150 or 200 years. How many of you men are doing vocationally what your fathers did?”

Before the Industrial Revolution, when we still lived in an handcraft society, that boys ended up doing what their fathers did in 95 or 98 percent of the cases.

If your father was a baker, you became a baker. If your father was a farmer, you became a farmer. There was very little mobility in society. Even in the New Testament, the one who stands in for Jesus’ human father, Joseph, is a carpenter. It’s not too long before Jesus himself, as he grows up and takes the load in the family, is actually referred to as the son of a carpenter.

In other words, today sonship is bound up, first of all, with genes and chromosomes. Who’s the real father? Do a DNA test. But in the ancient world, sonship and being a father was bound up with self-identity in much more profound ways.

You were likely to learn your trade, you were likely to learn what skills would give you your living, and you would likely get your self-identity from being taught by your father.

If your name was Stradivarius, you learned how to make violins. You knew how to choose the wood and how to make the organic glue. You learned and you became identified with the entire heritage clan. Now this reality is what generates quite a few “son” metaphors in the Bible. Some people, for example, are called sons of Belial, sons of worthlessness or as we say “he was good for nothing”. This is seen in 1 Samuel 2:12 12 Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the Lord

This is actually not a slur on your father; it’s saying you’re such a disgustingly worthless person that the only possible explanation is that you come from a worthless family. That’s your identity.

It can also work the other way. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” The idea is that God is the supreme peacemaker, and as we make peace, we’re acting like God. That’s not telling you how to become a Christian or how to have eternal life. It’s saying if you act like God, then you are showing yourself to belong to the family of God.

But in John, chapter 8 starting at verse 31, Jesus is in conversation with some Jews who are disputing things with him. He claims that Abraham, who had been dead for 2,000 years, had actually bore witness to Jesus. They claim, “Listen, we’re the children of Abraham. We’re Israelites. We’re Jews. We claim that you are being ridiculous. You haven’t been alive even for 50 years. How could Abraham bear witness to you?”

Jesus says, “You’re not really sons of Abraham at all, because he really did bear witness to me. If you don’t recognize me, this shows that you really can’t be his sons.” Jesus is not denying that genetically they are sons of Abraham. He’s saying they have not adopted Abraham’s stance, and in that sense they’re disassociated from him.

So the jews up the ante and they say, “Well, actually, we’re sons of God.” Jesus says, “I don’t think so. I come from God and God knows me and I know him, and you don’t know me at all. You can’t possibly be sons of God.

Within this kind of framework in the Old Testament, God says some remarkable things about his sons. He looks at the Israelites in the book of Exodus, chapter 4, and he says, “Israel is my firstborn son.”

On this Father's Day, we often reflect on the qualities of good fathers—those who provide, protect, guide, and love unconditionally.

It’s a good thing for your son to follow in vocation/trade which will help him provide for themselves and a family. But what really matters is your son following your spiritual walk into fatherhood as a believer and a child of God. And that’s what leads us into our text this morning an old passage that we are truly familiar with John 3:16-19

John 3:16 (NKJV)

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

This means that God has a Unique Son (John 3:16)

Our Title today is “The Uniqueness of our Sonship”

Check the word World, Now if you come from a churchy background, as I did, and if you’re coming close to my age, you may remember a time when Christians spoke about worldliness. We don’t talk about worldliness very much anymore, but when I was a boy, Christians were terribly concerned about avoiding worldliness.

It was summarized in a lot of different ways. “Never drink, smoke, swear, or chewing tobacco, and never go out with girls that do.” This was not considered the climax of all godliness, but it was definitely a way of avoiding worldliness.

But that’s too shallow a notion of what’s in the world from John’s perspective. From John’s perspective, the world is bound up with a kind of rebellion that doesn’t recognize it’s made by God and owes him. Verse 19: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world …” God’s revelation, God’s self-disclosure. God’s sending his son. Who God is. What he’s come for. “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” In other words, very often the primary reason why we really don’t want to come to Jesus and come to his word, is because we are comfortable with our independence that we are unwilling to acknowledge any god over us, including the God who has made us and to whom we must one day give an account. It’s a horrible betrayal.

Idolatry is not necessarily having a little goblet of stone or wood or precious metal. Idolatry in the first instance is displacing God, choosing something other than the God who is there as the primary object of our love and our affection and our devotion, of our obedience, our loyalty. The Bible insists that God made us. We owe him! Instead, if we defund God, we have sunk into idolatry so that when God discloses himself to us, we can’t see him because we are our own idol. God can’t be first because WE MADE OURSELVES “THE MAN”.

That’s what the word world means now lets look at For God so loved the world that he gave his “one and only son” ( Begotten) This means God has a Unique Son (John 3:16)

What is said about him in this respect.… It’s not an obvious expression, is it? God has a son? Muslims find this sort of expression bizarre. On the street, many Muslims think that Christians believe that God copulated with Mary to produce Jesus, and that’s the Trinity: God, Mary, Jesus.

The Bible says, Jesus is God’s son in a unique sense, even in this verse. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.”

In fact, two chapters later, in chapter 5, we read these strange words, verse 19, “ ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus says. ‘The Son …” He’s referring to himself. “ ‘The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing …’ ” That is, there’s some kind of functional subordination? That’s the way father-son relationships work in the ancient world? “ ‘… because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’ ”

You might be a son of God in the sense that you make peace. Isn’t that what Jesus says? “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” In some measure, I can reflect God, but I can’t possibly stand up and say, “I’m a son of God. I do everything God does.”WHY CAN’T I SAY THIS?”

If we do what God does then why do we have a problem Following the law, Forgiving people, Telling the truth, loving one another, giving freely, trusting people again?

Father’s what are some challenges you face in passing spiritual beliefs to our sons?

NOTE: Sometimes Sons view God as they view their fathers. Which can be a reason why they will believe or not.

Example: My wife grew up with a guy (we'll just call him Mike) that went to go visit his father for the first time. Mike was born before the father had been married but never got to see his father until after he was married. However, the wife was not happy about him coming to get to know his dad. Because of this, Mike felt unwanted and he complained about how his dad didn't do anything about it. When he left he was angry and swore he would never go back. He cut his dad off and if you bring up God to him, he’ll ask you “Who is God, he ain’t done nothing for me.” Mike was rejected by his dad, so Mike rejects God.”

‌Another reason why it may be hard to pass your beliefs on to your children:

‌Fathers may subconsciously think it’s a sign of weakness to admit that they need God. They see themselves as strong and independent. I got this. I’m the head of this family but they fail to see the order in 1 Corinthians 11:3 the head of every man is Christ and the head of woman is man and the head of Christ is God. But if you look deeper you will see the real heart of the matter is PRIDE. Pride causes us to put ourselves in the center of our lives instead of God.

You can always start where you are to be a blessing to your children by being a spiritual father. And if you have been a spiritual father, keep living by example of Jesus. Start with sincere forgiveness and say what you need to be forgiving for.

Then walk in the examples of:

Noah - Who believed and faith no matter how he looks to others

Job - Who was man blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. Who loved his kids so much that he prayed for them regularly just incase they sinned and curse God in their hearts.

Jehonadab - in 2 Kings 10:16” - Who told Jehu “Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.”

Joseph - (Jesus' earthly father) child wasn’t his but Joseph had a hand in helping raise the Son of God. If you are not a father, be like Joseph and help be a spiritual father to some other fatherless child.

Closing

When we understand our identity as a child of God. Starting by relying on the Holy Spirit can lead to significant personal growth and impactful service. It shows the importance of distinguishing between Jesus’ unique sonship and our role as adopted children, allowing us to live out our faith authentically and powerfully.

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of earthly fathers and for being our perfect heavenly Father. Help us to hold to Jesus' teachings, to live in the freedom He provides, and to reflect Your character in all we do. Guide us to be true disciples, showing Your love and truth to the world. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Happy Father’s Day, and may God bless you all!