Sep 27th - Listen to Your Father
Listen to Your Father
Focus: Jesus does the will of His Father perfectly to fulfill all righteousness.
Function: As Christians, we listen to our Father by believing His Son.
On the Monday before Jesus was crucified, the chief priests and elders of the Temple
confront Jesus and challenge His authority. Jesus had waltzed into the Temple like He owned the
place and started doing signs, performing miracles, teaching like a rabbi, and overturning tables!
Who does Jesus think He is?! They ask Him that: “By what authority are you doing these things,
and who gave you this authority?” Like I said, it was the Monday before Jesus was crucified, so
the Jewish leaders were not just on a fact-finding mission, they were on a fault-finding mission.
They were trying to trap Jesus. If Jesus claimed to be God, they would charge Him with
blasphemy. If He claimed to be anything but God, then they could pull rank and accuse Jesus of
subversion.
But Jesus turns the tables on them and sets His own trap: “I also will ask you one
question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these
things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” The priests
and elders hold a side bar and they realize that they’re in a pickle. If they say John the Baptist’s
baptism was from heaven, Jesus will ask them why they didn’t believe John’s teaching that He
was the Messiah. If they say John’s baptism was man-made, then they’ll lose the popular vote;
they’ll lose their power and authority because the people liked John the Baptist. So, they slither
out of the trap and give a politician’s answer: “We do not know.”
Just about every presidential candidate in history has claimed to be Christian. Politicians
also have a well-earned reputation of corruption and moral ambiguity that might suggest
otherwise. Of course, having Christians hold political office is a wonderful thing, but the danger is that it can turn something as sacred as the Christian faith into lip service. If politicians had a
deeper faith than just lip service, they’d be hated by both Democrats and Republicans.
Lip-service faith doesn’t care as much about the particulars of the Christian faith as much as the
worldly benefits of claiming to have faith. Lip-service faith is when a presidential candidate
claims to be Christians to get more votes. Lip-service faith is when someone claims to be
Christian to get grandma off their back. Lip-service faith is when your Facebook posts don’t
reflect the sermon you heard on Sunday. Jesus traps the elders and priests in lip-service faith.
They were using the faith for their own benefit, but they weren’t actually believing it.
Of course, no Christian wants to have a lip-service faith. But faith is lukewarm and stale
when all it is to you is believing that God exists. That’s too simple to be the Christian faith! And
even believing Jesus is God is too simple to be the Christian faith! If that’s how shallow faith is,
then that’s not the faith you are called to have. It’s lip-service faith. Even demons have that faith.
The devil believes God exists and that Jesus is God! No, your Father in Heaven calls you to a
deeper faith. Not just lip-service faith. Christians are called to listen to their Father in Heaven
and believe in His Son.
But the Bible doesn’t tell us to second-guess our faith all the time. What a scary way to
be a Christian! The Spirit gives you a faith that you can count on, rely on, and depend on. Faith
believes that Jesus listened to His Father. Faith believes that our Heavenly Father sent Jesus to
reign in and over this world. Faith believes that our Heavenly Father sent Jesus with all authority
in heaven and earth to join heaven and earth together as one. Faith believes that Jesus obeyed His
Father’s will by paying the punishment for all sin on the cross. Faith believes that Jesus listened
to His Father by giving us His own righteousness. Faith believes that when the Father called His Son out of the grave, Jesus listened and obeyed. Faith believes that because the Father raised
Jesus from the dead, Jesus will reign for eternity on earth. When you have faith, it’s more than
just believing God exists or that Jesus happens to be divine. When you have faith, it’s listening to
your Heavenly Father when He says that because Jesus died and rose, you are forgiven and that
you do have eternal life. Faith believes that because Jesus listened to His Father, you reap the
benefits.
That’s why Jesus also told the parable of the two sons to the chief priests and elders of
the Temple. Jesus wanted to know which son obeyed the father who told them to work in the
vineyard: the one that said no to his father’s face, but then went and worked in the vineyard,
anyway; or the one that told his father he would work in the vineyard, and then decided not to.
The parable was another trap by Jesus. Of course, neither son is a model we should follow! Both
sons disrespected the father. But Jesus was inviting the priests and elders to repentance. Because
while both sons disrespected the father, the first son was repentant. The priests and elders heard
John the Baptist and did not listen to him. But tax collectors and prostitutes listened to John the
Baptist, they listened to their Heavenly Father, and they were going into the Kingdom before
even priests and elders!
Listening to your Heavenly Father isn’t just obeying your Heavenly Father. Of course,
obeying God is important, and we’ll get to that. But the reason tax collectors and prostitutes can
get into the Kingdom before priests and elders is not because their lives are morally superior. It’s
because listening to your Father is deeper than just obeying. Listening to your Father means
believing in what He sent His Son to do for you. And believing in Jesus is more than just believing that He died and rose, but that He died and rose for you . Even Satan believes Jesus died
and rose!
Listening to your Father means believing that your sins are forgiven because the Father
sent Jesus for you . That’s the Christian faith! And when you believe that Jesus was sent by His
Father with the authority to forgive your sins, that’s when you are given the power of the Holy
Spirit to also obey your Heavenly Father, listening to His commands and living the life He
designs for you to live. If you only repent by changing your behavior, it’s not enough. Changing
behavior is not repentance. Because repentance is believing Jesus was sent to forgive you of your
sins. It’s believing that you are forgiven and you are redeemed by Jesus, and that Jesus now
reigns over you as Lord. And if Jesus reigns over you as Lord, repentance also believes that
Jesus sends you His Spirit to reshape your life to be obedient to the Father.
Perhaps the phrase “listen to your father” calls to mind the guilt-inducing, shame
inflicting reprimand of a mother. But listening to your Heavenly Father is a Gospel invitation to
a bold faith. A faith that’s not just a politician’s lip service for better social standing. A faith
that’s not just shallow belief in a god up there somewhere. Not even a faith that only believes in
the historical fact of the death and resurrection of a first-century carpenter. Listening to your
Heavenly Father is the invitation to have a confident faith that says His Son died and rose again
to make all things right—in heaven and on earth. Listening to your Father is believing Jesus’s
promise to make all things right includes you . Listening to your Father means you don’t just
hope you’ll be in heaven some day, but you know it because that’s what the Father says to you in
your baptism. Listening to your Father means believing Jesus does the will of His Father
perfectly to fulfill all righteousness for you . So, dear Christian, listen to your Father! Amen.