Skip to main content

92. "Our Father"


Matthew 6:9, Luke 11:2, 1 John 3:1-3
Key Verse: "Our Father"

When His parents, Mary and Joseph, found twelve year old Jesus in the Temple, after three days of searching, Jesus responded to Mary's rebuke by saying, "Why were you searching for me?  Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"  (Luke 2:49) Now, Jesus is using inclusive language to address His Father.  He does not teach His disciples to open their prayer with, "Jesus' Father," or "Father God," or, "My Father," but rather, Jesus teaches His disciples to use an intimate, but corporate term, "Our Father."  Jesus is beginning to teach His disciples that they too can be a part of the family.  We are not only children with individual relationships.  We have a relationship with our heavenly Father, but we also have siblings.

In the religious, idolatrous cultures of Jesus' day, such as that of the Greeks and Romans, the gods were capricious, powerful characters, thought to be endowed with human characteristics.  Mortals saw themselves as subjects of these beings who seemed to be in constant need of appeasement.

Even many religious Jews misunderstood the character of the one true God.  Many of the 603 laws that had come about since the time of the exile were the result of the Jews, under their own strength of will, trying to prevent God from becoming angry with them again. They saw God more from a pagan point of view. They did not know Him as He wanted to be known, through "relationship."

When Jesus begins this prayer with the words, "Our Father," He is extending the offer of both a horizontal relationship through a community of people, and a vertical relationship to our heavenly Father.

As a loving Father, God desires a personal relationship with His children and, like our earthly fathers God enjoys it best when we are having a good relationship with each other.
He is the Father that we can relate to.  He is protector and guide.  When we are His true children, He will discipline.  (Hebrews 12:5-12)  He is a Father whose love will not fail.  What a blessing to know that we belong to Him.  "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!"  (1 John 1:1)

Hymn:  "Children of the Heavenly Father"
& "Children of God" by Casting Crowns 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October 27 Save the Glaze for the Bunny

Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips of an evil heart. A malicious man disguises himself with his lips. But in his heart, he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it. If a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him. ~Proverbs 26:23-28 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

July 16 Thick Skinned Love

Whoever covers over an offence promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. ~Proverbs 17:9 If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. ~Matthew 18:15  The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ~1 Peter 4:7-8  Being offended seems to be the battle cry of the day. Instead of freedom of speech, everyone has the right not to be offended. If one is offended, then one has the right to exact vengeance on the offender because, of course, the offender KNEW that he or she was being offensive and just didn’t care. Is that how you see much of society behaving today?  There seems to be all of this offending and finger pointing that just keeps growing and growing. Nothing is being resolved, just more blame that grows louder a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Surprise!

Luke 24:14-35 Listen link is a video: https://www.facebook.com/gregory.dubois.547/posts/10157923265761195 For today’s message we are going to backtrack on the Scriptures a bit. Last week I talked about what happened in the evening of Easter day. Today’s story happened in the midday or afternoon of that day. But I wanted to save it for our Communion Sunday because Jesus breaks the bread for them at the end of this story and that is what we will be doing today at the end of the message when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. We’re talking about two of Jesus’ disciples who left Jerusalem to walk to Emmaus, perhaps the home of one or both of them. But Jesus walked with them and once they realized Jesus was alive, these two disciples hurried back to the rest of the disciples to alert them to the wonderful news. They arrived Just before Jesus showed up in the upper room. But before I go back and get into the story of the journey to Emmaus, I think it’s fun to notice that the ...
Post a Comment
Read more