Our Father in heaven… In the Old Testament, God is referred to as the father of the nation of Israel. The main revelation of God as Heavenly Father comes by Jesus Christ. Most NT references to the heavenly Father or Father in heaven are in Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mountain” in Matthew. It’s really a sermon about the perfection and goodness of God the Father. Jesus revealed a dramatic new relationship made possible between God as Father and people. Children don’t call their father “father.” They always say “dad or daddy” which is a more intimate and affectionate term. This is how Jesus referred to God the Father. Jesus prayed “Abba, Father…” even when his soul was overwhelmed to the point of death (Mark 14:36). The Aramaic abba that stands behind the Greek pater was an intimate and affectionate title used by children. Children call their father “dad,” but they also learn to respect his discipline.  

In the Sermon there is intimacy with the Father and the distance of discipline; it’s the kind of distance you have with someone who is respected as an authority. The heavenly Father is the standard of perfection and we cannot measure up to his standard of perfection (5:48). We fall short and need grace. Did any of you have an earthly father who demanded perfection and you failed to measure up? (The Father’s grace provides the perfection we need in His Son’s righteousness.) The heavenly Father will forgive us only if we forgive others who sin against us (6:14; 18:35). Did any of you have a abusive earthly father who refused to forgive your mistakes? (Watch I Can Only Imagine.) God is good and he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous; therefore, we ought to love and pray for enemies who persecute us (5:44-46). The heavenly Father provides everything his children need to live when they seek Him first (6:25-34).

Do you ever struggle with the goodness of your heavenly Father? I know this may sound unbelievable from a pastor of 30 years, but I sometimes worry that my heavenly Father cannot provide for my physical, mental and emotional needs. I know my spiritual needs of forgiveness and assurance of life after death have been satisfied by Christ’s death and resurrection, but sometimes I get stressed out over my need for meaning and purpose as I now move into my latter years.

I am a father who would accept any sacrifice to meet the needs of my children. If I, as an earthly (and sinful) father, would do this for my children, how much more will my good heavenly Father provide for his children. I am the Father’s child and he has an obligation to provide for me. The Father will do what he has promised. Matthew 7:7-11: If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

The best gift the heavenly Father can give us is his Son to save us and then his Holy Spirit to fill us and assure us of his love. When we are worried and stressed out the best thing we can ask for is the Holy Spirit. His presence is peace. Luke 11:13 identifies the best “good thing” the Father gives us (see Matthew 7:7-11): If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! The Holy Spirit brings us into the loving relationship he has with the Father. Romans 8:15: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. When we receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit we want to cry “Abba! Father!” and we are never too old to do it.

I pray this way, “My good Father in heaven, every good and perfect gift comes down from you, the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (James 1:17). Father God, you are light and there is no darkness in you (1 John 1:5). Good Father, you give the gift of the Holy Spirit. If I ask for a fish, you will not give me a snake. If I ask for an egg, you will not give me a scorpion. I am evil and I want to give good gifts to my children, then how much more will you, good heavenly Father, give the Holy Spirit to comfort and strengthen me when I ask (Luke 11:5-13). Thank you, good Father in heaven.”

I watched a TV show on the 12 boys and their soccer coach rescued from the cave in Thailand. Eleven of the boys dedicated themselves to Buddha. They shaved their heads, put on orange robes, and were ordained into Buddhist monkhood. When the boys were trapped in the cave most of the people outside prayed to Buddha and sacrificed to the goddess who lives in the mountain. The news reporter mentioned that only 11 of the 12 dedicated themselves to Buddha, because one is not a Buddhist; he is a Christian. He is 14-year old Adul Sam-on. He is a sponsored child of Compassion International. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior in March 2018. I heard his parents say, “Hallelujah!” Their church, Baag Jong Church hosted the many of the rescue divers. I believe God saved all the boys because of the presence of one Christian boy, his parents and church members, who prayed to Jesus Christ.

Question: Is there any story in the Bible that teaches God will spare sinful idol worshipers because of the presence of one righteous person? Yes. It is the story of Abraham interceding for wicked Sodom and Gomorrah: Genesis 18:16-33. Then Abraham drew near and said to the LORD, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the LORD said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” If the LORD had been able to find just ten righteous, God-fearing people in Sodom, then He would not have destroyed it and killed everyone. (Archaeologists estimate a population of about 200,000 for the five cities of the Jordan Valley, Genesis 13:10, 14:1-3.) The Lord could only find four – Lot, his wife, and two daughters. The two sons-in-law refused to believe and perished. The presence of righteous people delays judgment upon the wicked and gives them more time to repent and get right with God.

Read Isaiah 42:6-8. Righteous people are a light “to being out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” One righteous boy and family were the key to all the boys rescued from darkness and death. Proverbs 15:29: The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Maybe some of the other boys and families will believe in Jesus Christ because of the witness of the Christian boy and his family. Pray for this.

The Lord’s prayer is recorded in Matthew 6:9-13 and a shorter version in Luke 11:2-4. Matthew 6: “And when you pray… Pray then like this.” The prayer in Luke is a response to the disciples’ request, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Matthew 6:9-13: Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

The Lord’s prayer is an example of how to pray. When I pray the Lord’s prayer, I expand on each request to make it my prayer. Sometimes I don’t finish praying it because I expand on one request and then forget where I was in the prayer. For example, I will pray “May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and expand on that request by praying for God’s will to be desired and done on earth in my family, among my friends, in my church and nation, and world missions.

My expanded versions of this prayer seem to contradict what Jesus taught before he gave the prayer (Matthew 6:5-8): “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Jesus gave a simple, straightforward prayer. It contains every important request. It can be prayed or recited in 10 seconds without much thought. My expanded prayers are not empty repetition offered to manipulate the gods. I have heard and watched Buddhist praying in Hong Kong; that’s empty repetition. I have heard and watched Islamic prayers in a mosque; that’s empty repetition. The Lord’s prayer can become empty repetition. My expanded versions make me really think about each request and draw me into the presence of the Lord.

I will continue to write a meditation on each request of the prayer; that is, how I make it my prayer.

I encountered Romans 8:28 three times this past Sunday. I heard two sermons on Sunday and read a chapter in a book that used Romans 8:28. Romans 8:28: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (NASB).

This verse has always been a comfort to believers. It is always applied to troubles, trials, and tests we experience in this world under the curse of sin. God is all-knowing and all-powerful and causes all things – troubles, trials, tests, good and bad events in our lives – to work together for good. There’s cause and effect in this promise. God is the cause and the effect is all things working together for a final good. God causes this to happen for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

My concern is that none of the preachers or writers connected 8:28 with 8:29-30 for believers to understand 8:28 in its context and see the bigger picture. The two men preached with passion and sweat, but didn’t develop the power and beauty of the complete text. The “all things” that God causes to work together for good are stated before and after 8:28. All things refers to “the sufferings of this present time… In all these things (tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword) we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (8:18, 31-39) These things are evil. All things also refers to verses 29-30. The good things that God causes to work together are foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. Sanctification is not mentioned, but it is being conformed to the image of God’s Son. Believers are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. These are powerful and beautiful theological truths. Each one needs to be understood and meditated upon.

If a man peaches Romans 8:28 and doesn’t include 29-30 then it isn’t good preaching. Here’s my analogy: A person visits the Grand Canyon and only stands at the rim and looks across the vastness of the Canyon. Now he thinks he knows the Grand Canyon. But a person doesn’t really know the Canyon until he has hiked to the bottom and back to the top. (I did this with my daughter and almost died because I didn’t drink any electrolyte!) There is power and beauty deep in Canyon not visible from the rim.

God works all things together to deepen our relationship with Him. “Certainly Paul does not mean that the evil experienced by believers in this life will always be reversed, turned into ‘good.’ For many things that we suffer will contribute to our ‘good’ only by refining our faith and strengthening our hope… The idea that this verse promises the believer material wealth or physical well-being, for instance, betrays a typically Western perversion of ‘good’ into an exclusively material interpretation. God may well use trials in these areas to produce what he considers a much higher ‘good’: a stronger faith, a more certain hope.” (Douglas Moo, NICNT: The Epistle to the Romans. Eerdmans, 1996, p.530)

I may be anxious about a lost job, a life transition, a broken relationship or a health problem, and wonder how God can work “the sufferings of this present time” together for my good. God’s promise is that he can and will do it for those who love him. One person wrote, “This promise is for those who love God. In other words, if you are walking away from the purpose and will of God, it’s probably not going to work for your good… So always commit what you do into God’s hands, and it things don’t go the way you expect, you can rest in the promise of Romans 8:28. That will help to lift the weight of depression from your shoulders.” (Ray Comfort, How to Battle Depression & Suicidal Thoughts, p.78.) The writer used Job as an example. Joseph is another excellent example. They both experienced extreme trials and the trials were a part of God working all things together for their good and His glory.

God “works together” for our good the trials of this life, but let’s not miss the bigger picture. We take comfort in God’s foreknowledge of us (Psalm 139), his predestining of us, his calling us according to his purpose, his justification of us by Christ’s death and resurrection, his sanctifying work to conform us to Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8), and our final glorification in heaven.

I make the same mistake almost every day. I compare myself to other people and my life’s circumstances to other people’s. The grass always looks greener in someone else’s life. Someone else has more financial security; someone else has a better ministry; someone else less to worry about; someone else has more good things happen to them; someone else has more money to retire on; someone else is healthier (I’m very healthy!). I need to stop comparing and start counting; that is, stop comparing my blessings to someone else’s and start counting my blessings. Is there a Bible story for my problem? There’s “You shall not covet your neighbor’s greener grass.” (Exodus 20:17) But I like the story in John 21:20-23 better. Jesus healed Peter’s fear and shame by asking him three times, “Do you love me?” Jesus told Peter how his life would end for the glory of God and then said, “Follow me.” (John 21:15-19) Then Peter compared his life to John’s and asked Jesus, “Lord, what about that guy, John?” Why did Peter want to know Jesus’ plan for John? Curiosity or insecurity? Probably both. I compare out of fear and insecurity. The grass always appears greener in someone else’s life, but it probably is not. I am really ignorant of that person’s life circumstances. I don’t know what battles that person has faught or challenges he/she faces. There’s a lot of green in my grass to be grateful for. The answer to the comparison trap is what Jesus said to Peter, “If it is my will that he remain until I come what is that to you? YOU FOLLOW ME!” First, it is a healing medicine for my fear and insecurity to know that Jesus’ will directs and protects my life. Second, my focus is to follow Christ. No looking around and comparing myself to others. I only look at Christ and follow his plan for my life. When I’m looking around and comparing my life to other Christian’s lives I need to hear Christ say to me, “Stop looking. What is that person’s life to you? You follow me!” I need to see myself alone with Jesus, no one else in sight, hear him say, “Follow me,” and stay right behind him as he takes me places I’ve never been before.

Two things important to living with confidence and contentment are prayer and accepting a change of plans according to God’s will. I will post some Bible study on these two topics soon. They are under construction right now.

Jesus’ two commands are LOVE one another and GO make disciples.

1. John 13:34-35: “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
2. John 15:12-14: “This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

What makes Jesus’ “love one another” a new command? Every Jew knew the two great love commandments: Love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. What’s new about Jesus’ command?

How can love be commanded? Love is an action of free will. Love is freely offered self-sacrifice on behalf of another person. It cannot be commanded. I cannot command my wife to love me, especially after I do something to make her angry and she doesn’t feel in love with me. Jesus commands love because love is an action we can choose to do.  The feeling of love cannot be commanded, but the action of love can be. Love is an action verb. We can still do a loving action even when we don’t feel like it. My wife’s love language is acts of service. I can still love my wife by serving her even when I don’t feel in love.

What’s new about Jesus’ love command is its exclusiveness. Jesus gave this command to his disciples, not the world. In fact, he gave the command after Judas left to betray him. This command is exclusive to those who love Christ as Savior and Lord. We’re not commanded to sacrifice our lives for just anyone; only other brothers and sisters in Christ.

What’s new about Jesus’ love command is its example. The Old Testament commands, “Love God and love your neighbor,” are for all people (inclusive), but there was never a perfect example. Israel failed to love God and neighbor. There are imperfect examples of love your neighbor, like Jonathan loved David, Ruth loved her mother-in-law Naomi, but no perfect sacrificial example until Jesus Christ.

How did Jesus love his disciples? What perfect example did he give them?

Jesus taught and showed them how to love one another for three years. Jesus settled jealous rivalries between the disciples. When James and John asked to sit next to Christ on his throne, Jesus taught them about the cost of love. Jesus gave James and John the nickname “Sons of Thunder” because they were quick-tempered, judgemental, and selfish (Mark 3:17).  Read Mark 10:35-45. One of the Sons of Thunder, John, changed and wrote more about “love one another” than all the other disciples. Christ changed that Son of Thunder into a selfless servant.

Jesus washed the disciples’ feet as an example of how to love by serving (13:12-14).

Jesus’ final and perfect example of “love one another” was his sacrifice on the cross as a ransom payment to save us from our sinfulness and reconcile us to God. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

What’s new about Jesus’ love command is the power of its testimony. John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Our testimony to the world will be powerful if we have the kind of self-sacrificial love Christ has shown us for one another. I’ve served in a few churches and I know that loving one another takes patience, kindness, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, every quality described in 1 Corinthians 13. Love for one another is our most powerful testimony to the world about Christ. Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus are recognized by their religious rituals. Christians must be recognized by their love for one another!

I remember when I was a teenager singing around a campfire, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

GO command – next post.