Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Father In Heaven

his day, like Mother’s Day, is celebrated in many different ways.

One might sit and ponder on his or her relationship with their father, while another might not have the happiest or fondest memories of their father.

And another yet, might celebrate with their son or son-in-law who are fathering their grandchildren.

Some of us are male and can celebrate with our families.

Happy Father’s Day!

These words wake up different emotions in all of us because we all have different memories of our own fathers.

I am glad that we celebrate our mothers in May and our fathers in June.

The Bible tells us to honour our father and mother that it may go well with us and have a long and full life.

(Ex.

20:12, Eph.6:1-3 )

I just realize that probably non of us has a living father to celebrate this day with.

My father passed away in 1985.

That’s a log time ago.

But one thing we have in common, no matter what kind of father we had or still have in our lives.

We have a Father is heaven.

The Bible tells us that God is a “father to the fatherless” (), and David wrote:

David said in Psalm 68:5

Both of Davids statements here tell us what our heavenly Father is like…

He is compassionate and caring...

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Heavenly Father longs for us to spend time for Him and communicate with Him in prayer...

We might not be able to talk to our earthly fathers anymore and spend time with them but our Heavenly Father longs for us to do exactly that… spend time for Him and communicate with Him in prayer...

The greatest prayer that was ever prayed is the Lord’s Prayer, where Jesus taught his disciples and us to pray:

Matth 6:

This prayer begins with an address to God as “Our Father in heaven”… and this address is followed by giving all honor to Him… ( Jesus is fulfilling the OT law of honouring the father (Ex 20))

To address God as “Father” was a revolutionary, even unheard of thought in the Jewish mind.

The Hebrews feared God and attached such sacredness to His name, they would not even utter it…

Let me explain this:

The name of God most often used in the Hebrew Bible is YHWH… written in most of the english translations as “the LORD”… owing to the Jewish tradition of the sacredness… it is still replaced by the Hebrew word “Adonai” (my Lords)… and is in the Greek translation of the Old Testament ( Septuagint) translated as κυριος (Lord)…

When Jesus referred to God as his father, he was accused of blasphemy.

One of the reasons Jesus was crucified was because of this relationship he claimed to have with his father…

We know that Jesus claim was not just a claim… Jesus spoke the truth when he sai that God is His heavenly Father…

And now, because of His death and resurrection, we can have that relationship, too…

After he was risen from the dead, Jesus said to Mary Magdalene…

Jesus used the name “heavenly Father” often when he taught the disciples about the kingdom…

Matth 6

Jesus tells us that the heavenly Father is not to be compared with our earthly fathers...

John 15:

Our earthly fathers are human and have a human personality, which causes them to make mistakes… (the same can be said about mothers)… we are human… God is not…

In fact, Jesus tells us that God provides more than earthly fathers ever could…

Not only does the Bible tell us to address God as Father, but we are to do so in an intimate and personal way…

As children of God, we are adopted as sons and daughters in Christ Jesus…

We did not grow up, saying, “I love you” to our parents, nor have they ever said it us…

It’s not that they didn’t love us, but culture and traditions in that time and place did not allow for sentiments like that between parents and children...

But we addressed them with Papa and Mama… expressing love and honor towards our parents…

As children of God, we are adopted as sons and daughters inChrist Jesus…

The apostle Paul puts it this way:

Romans 8:5

The word “Abba” speaks of intimacy, like calling our fathers ‘Daddy” or “Papa”…

The idea is of an affectionate relationship…

My grandchildren call us “Opi” and “Omi”… Those are words of affection and love...

Now, someone migth say, “you taught them to address you this way.”

… And that is tru

We have taught them in the beginning to call us Opi and Omi but they have learned that these names are connected with a very intimate and loving relationship between grandparents and grandchildren …

We might have taught them in the beginning to call us Opi and Omi but they have learned that these names are connected with a very intimate and loving relationship between grandparents and grandchildren …

It is the same with God and us as His children...

We have a relatonship with God, that is based and founded on an intimate love that origianted in the Father…

Gal 4:6

God sent he Spirit of the Son - the Holy Spirit into our hearts, which cries out from the depth of our soul… “Abba!

Father!”…

Paul also said that we are sons and heirs through God…

What is the Father Like?

If you want an accurate portrait of God the heavenly Father, just look at the story Jesus told about the prodigal son in …

The story isn’t all about the son, as we often think and interpret this parable… It is also about the loving father…

And who would be more qualified to talk about a loving father than Jesus

And who would be more qualified to talk about a loving father than Jesus

In this story, Jesus presents God as an engaged, loving and affectionate father who loves both of his sons...

The Father has two sons… the younger demanded his portion of the estate before the father has died or at least retired… This son went off into a distant land and lived like a fool - blowing his money, consorting with prostitutes, literally ending up in a pig pen… He finally came to his senses and returned home…

He finally came to his senses and returned home…

Back at home we see a father who longed for his son’s return… He ran and threw his arms around him… kissing him over and over again…

The son started his carefully prepared speech of apology : Father, I have sinned against God and before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son again…

But the father didn’t listen…

Luke 15:

He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick.

Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him.

Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it.

We’re going to feast!

We’re going to have a wonderful time!

My son is here—given up for dead and now alive!

Given up for lost and now found!’

And they began to have a wonderful time.(

Message)

He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick.

Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him.

Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it.

We’re going to feast!

We’re going to have a wonderful time!

My son is here—given up for dead and now alive!

Given up for lost and now found!’

And they began to have a wonderful time.

Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), .

When the older brother came home, the father also went out to meet him… and to plead with him to celebrate the return of his lost and found brother… but he rejected both, his father’s invitation and his long lost brother

… we don’t know the end of the story, becasue Jesus did not tell us…

He loved both of his sons and wanted to rejoice together with them

This story is the perfect portrait of our heavenly Father… Although he is our God, there is intimacy, there is relationship, there is love and affection…

There are many gods in this world… but there is no god like our God?

… We have a compassionate, loving, affectionate God… A God who waits for us to come to him, like the father in the parable… A. God who is also going out, looking for us when we g astray, like a shepherd who leaves the 99 behind to find the one that is lost…