Episode 1. A Father's Love
Often you hear people talking about the love that a mother has for her children, and for the most part, that love is incredibly special. But there’s also the love of a father. And even though we …
Often you hear people talking about the love that a mother has for her children, and for the most part, that love is incredibly special. But there’s also the love of a father. And even though we don’t talk all that much about it … a father’s love, a father’s heart … well, that’s pretty special too.
It’s funny how we relegate our discussion of the greatest act of love in all of human history – the death of Jesus the Son of God on that Cross – to a few days each year that we label “Easter”. And okay, I know it’s a bit out of season, but it seems to me that the whole Easter thing is the perfect starting point for the series of messages that we’re kicking off today, called – The Incredible Father Heart of God.
This whole Easter thing – God sending His Son to die on a cross – it makes you really ask the question – What sort of a Father is God. after all – that He would allow His one and only Son to become a man, to be reviled, rejected, beaten, spat upon and nailed to a cross?
What sort of a dad would sovereignly choose a destiny like that for His Son?
Jesus did something incredibly radical. He called God – His Father. And by doing that, He claimed, directly to be His Son.
It was radical because up until then, the Jews so revered God that they rarely if ever even uttered His name on their lips
And Jesus comes along and starts calling this God – His Dad. And then – then this Dad allows his Son to be nailed to a cross. Seems to me – if were going to talk about the incredible Father heart of God over these coming few weeks, we had better sort this mess out. Because unless we do, you have to ask yourself: Is this really the sort of Father that we want to be involved with?
Well – is it?
Imagine if some writer wrote a movie script about a 21st century father who conspired to create a set of circumstances that would have his son nailed to a cross. Do you see any of the studios in Hollywood going for it and investing the millions of dollars you have to spend these days to make a movie. I don’t think so. And if some father here and now, today – did this in real life, well he’d go to jail for conspiracy or murder … or both.
And yet the reason they celebrate this grizzly event they tell us – is that this Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of God – came to die for their sin. Funny word “sin”. Almost a four-letter word these days. But, the thinking goes in the Christian Camp – that each of us fall a long way short of the glory of God – and so, our rebellion, our rejection of Him deserves punishment.
We deserve an eternal death, an eternal separation from God. But because God loves us so much, His sense of justice is satisfied, because He sent His Son, to die in our place – so that when we believe in this Jesus – we’re forgiven.
Sounds – well, on the surface of it, when you just step through the logic of it dispassionately like that – it sounds kind of weird doesn’t it? It does … and if we just keep it there as a theoretical bit of logic, I guess it stays kind of weird.
But put a human face on it – put the reality of Jesus into it – and it becomes a compelling story. Jesus upset the religious leaders something fierce. He cut through their hypocrisy, He loved the outcasts, He healed the blind and the sick … He powerfully brought the love of God to a people oppressed. Oppressed not only by a brutal Roman occupation, but by a form of religion that God never intended.
So – He threatened the religious status quo. What did the religious leaders of the day do? They trumped up some charges against Him, manipulated the judicial system, such as it was – and had Him crucified.
Have a listen though to what happens when Jesus is arrested in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:47-53):
While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.” At once he came up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you are here to do.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.
Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?
But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?”
So – there it is. This is not something that Jesus is being forced by His Father God to do. It’s something that He’s doing willingly.
Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? (v 53)
And He says it elsewhere too (John 10:17):
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.
That’s an incredible statement – imagine being called to be nailed to a cross – to die his agonising, excruciating death. Can you imagine if that was you or me? I think I’d want to run a million miles.
So it’s not the Father forcing the Son into something against His will. It’s the Father and the Son – God Himself – deciding that this is so important. Your sin and my sin, which we so often just sweep under the carpet, is such a big deal, that Someone has to pay. And that Someone is Jesus (John 3:16):
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Heard that so many times that it almost washes on by. So familiar that we don’t take any notice of it. But there – right there in that oh so familiar passage – beats the father heart of God. For God so loved the World so loved us … so loved you … so loved me … took our eternal destiny apart from Him so seriously … that He sent us His Son.
And do this Jesus died to pay for our sin … yours … mine. And if the story ended there, it would be awesome enough. But it doesn’t end there. It ends with a risen Jesus. It ends with an empty tomb. It ends with a hope a hope of life eternal.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6:9-11)
What all this tells me is this – God has an incredible heart after you and me. Because He wants us to have a life – an abundant life – a super abundant life.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
And His heart – the ache of His great and mighty Father heart for you and me – is to give us a new life, an abundant life, and eternal life. His plan? For God Himself to suffer and pay the price? His plan? For Jesus to rise up out of that tomb and ascend into heaven?
His plan… is for you and for me to spend eternity – a glorious eternity, an eternity that we can’t begin to even imagine – with Him, despite our sin, despite our rebellion, despite the punishment we deserve – by heaping that punishment on Jesus His Son. Don’t know about you – but that tells me a lot – it tells me everything about the Father heart of God for me.
He loves me so much – He loves you so much – that He would go to this great length, to bring us home to Him.
Question is: how do we respond to that? How do I respond to that. How do you … respond to that?
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