Happy Father's Day Father

Introduction

Happy Father’s Day! Did you know Father’s day was actually a very recent holiday? It’s true. It was started by a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd who lived in Spokane Washington. In 1909 she was hearing a Mother’s Day sermon. The thing was, her mother had died when she was very young, so it did not resonate with her at all because she and her siblings had been raised by their father. She asked the pastor after the service, “Don’t fathers need a day too?”

The first Father’s Day was celebrated the next year, 1910 in the month of June - her father’s birth month in Spokane, WA. It wasn’t celebrated nation-wide until 1972 when President Richard Nixon declared the third Sunday of every June to be Father’s Day.

The day initially flopped. Not because people didn’t want to celebrate Fathers, but because fathers thought it was too effeminate to get all mush gushy about your feelings about dad. Plus dads didn’t want flowers, and they didn’t want gifts either because they saw it as a commercial gimmick to sell more products which in all likelihood they themselves were the ones who had paid for them to begin with.

Today, besides the US, 75 other countries celebrate Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June. According to Hallmark, 80 million Father’s Day cards were exchanged today- the fourth most celebrated holiday of the year behind Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

It is important to celebrate dads for many reasons. Dads have a whole list of things they are responsible for. To be honest, they’re not always as sentimental as mom’s roles. Most men are not able to fulfill them all 100% of the time. We can try, and we can become really good at what we do. In the end, only THE Father can fulfill all the roles perfectly.

The Father

Old Testament Version of God

As odd as it seems to say it, many people seem to think there are two versions of God, one for each testament. The truth is that God is eternal, which means there is only one version of God. Rather than say the Old Testament “version” of God, it would be better to say the Old Testament “revelation” of God, or the Old Testament “understanding” of God.

In the Old Testament, references to God as a father were rare.

He was referred to as the Father of the nation of Israel

Deuteronomy 32:6 TLV

Is this how you pay back Adonai, O foolish, unwise people? Isn’t He your Father who ransomed you? He made you and established you.

and also,

Isaiah 63:16 TLV

For You are our Father— even if Abraham would not know us or Israel not recognize us. You, Adonai, are our Father, our Redeemer— from everlasting is Your Name.

And sometimes he was referred to as the Father of certain individuals, like Solomon.

2 Samuel 7:14 TLV

I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to Me. If he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and with the strokes from sons of men.

Or David,

Psalm 89:20 TLV

Then You spoke in vision to Your godly ones, and said: “I have bestowed help on a warrior. I have exalted one chosen from among the people.

He was also called the Father of the Fatherless

Psalm 68:5 TLV

Sing to God, sing praises to His Name. Prepare the road for Him who rides through the deserts, whose Name is Adonai— and rejoice before Him.

Other than that only used 15 times in the entire OT. It seems like it was avoided. Other religions in the Near East referenced their deities as “Father” but had a perverse meaning to it. Perhaps it was because they did not want to mix the two, or perhaps it’s because He had simply not been revealed as the Father yet, or perhaps something more.

New Testament Version of God

In the New Testament, Yeshua himself mentions the Father 65 times in the synoptic Gospels and over 100 times in John. Jesus reveals a unique relationship with God. Calls Him "Abba”

Contrary to previous information, it does not mean “daddy" it means “Dad”. It’s still a familiar term, not as formal as “Father”. So by example he taught us that this into simply “a way” to address God, it’s “THE way” because when we pray- there is intimacy. This differs from how He referred to God in relation to His disciples. He spoke in terms of MY God, versus your God. MY father, versus “OUR father”.

Paul recognized the distinction:

What is the distinction? It’s fatherhood by means of adoption, for this type of fatherhood was initiated by Jesus and based on our relationship with Him

Matthew 10:32 TLV

“Therefore whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father who is in heaven.

So then, do we say that the Father had no role? Not at all! This adoption was planned by the Father, and carried out by the Son.

Ephesians 1:5–6 TLV

He predestined us for adoption as sons through Messiah Yeshua, in keeping with the good pleasure of His will— to the glorious praise of His grace, with which He favored us through the One He loves!

The Traits of the Father

The Father Brings Up

Isaiah 1:2 TLV

Listen! Heavens, and hear, earth, for Adonai has spoken: “Sons I have raised and brought up, but they have rebelled against Me.

He Carries Us

Isaiah 63:9 TLV

In all their affliction He was afflicted. So the angel of His presence saved them. In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, then He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.

He Guards Us

Deuteronomy 32:10–12 TLV

He found him in the wilderness land, in the void of a howling waste. He surrounded him, cared for him, guarded him as the pupil of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, He spreads His wings, catches him, lifts him up on His pinions. Adonai alone guided him— there was no foreign god with him.

Other Character Traits of the Father

He is the living father- life giver

John 6:57 TLV

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who eats of Me will also live because of Me.

The Father is Holy

John 17:11 TLV

I am no longer in the world; but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name that You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are.

The Father is Righteous

John 17:25 TLV

Righteous Father, the world did not know You, but I knew You; and these knew that You sent Me.

The Father is Merciful

2 Corinthians 1:3 TLV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement.

The Father is Glorious- gives wisdom and revelation

Ephesians 1:17 TLV

that the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, our glorious Father, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in knowing Him.

What does it mean to us?

To Us Men, He is Our Example

Our goal should be to emulate Him, to treat our children as He treats us.

Sadly, tot all of us had a father growing up or not all of us had good fathers growing up, and most certainly none of us had perfect fathers growing up. They are after all human, they are our natural fathers. God is not our natural fathers, so we are not to compare God to our natural fathers.

Nevertheless, He is OUR FATHER- Avinu

John 1:12–13 TLV

But whoever did receive Him, those trusting in His name, to these He gave the right to become children of God. They were born not of a bloodline, nor of human desire, nor of man’s will, but of God.

Jesus gave us the right to become children of God. It was God’s will for us to be His children- He chose to be our Dad!

That means, all the things we’ve been hearing about the Father- He chooses to do that for us.

We Lack Nothing from Our Natural Fathers

This means that we who are believers no longer lack anything from our natural fathers. As a father, that is a big relief- because being a dad is not an easy job. As a father I now understand how hard it is to provide all that a father should provide.

As sons and daughters, it frees us to forgive our natural fathers for not being perfect- because after all, they had some pretty gigantic shoes to fill, and at the same time, we can rest assured that don’t lack anything now.

Conclusion

IF you are a father today- Happy Father’s Day! Remember to look to our Heavenly Father as your example for fatherhood, b. But be gentle with yourself, you have big shoes to fill.

If you grew up without a father, or you had an absent or abusive father, remember God Himself is a father to the fatherless. Remember, He is not the same father as the one you knew. Instead, He is all the father you will ever need. Allow yourself to be embraced by Him.

If you are a child here today, love and appreciate the father you have or had. They have a tough job to do, one that ultimately only God was worthy of doing completely.

Thank God for Him, and if He was a godly example to you, thank him for the heritage that he gave you.

Now let us pray the way Jesus taught us by saying,

Avinu - Our Father...