Day 7: The One the Son is Tethered To

Scripture

Today’s full reading in which the Father is mentioned several times is John 5:19-47

The context is picking up from the issues raised in the previous verses. Since Jesus speaks as one who has authority over the Sabbath, the question is raised — where does his authority come from? To which Jesus answers with the following:

“truthfully I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and show him all that he himself is doing.”
John 5:19

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Observation

These are remarkable words that reveal a lot about who the Father is and what the Father is doing. I’m struck by a couple of key ideas here:

Firstly it’s clear that the Son is tethered to the Father. By that I mean that he is a servant of his who lives to ‘do his bidding’ (to put it crudely). It isn’t only that the Son doesn’t do anything except what the Father reveals to him, it is that he can’t; ‘the Son can do nothing of his own accord.’

For Jesus to be the Son he must be perfectly consistent. For him to act in a way that is uncharacteristic of God would mean that he had temporarily ceased to be the Son. His identity and his behaviour are therefore intrinsically linked.

Secondly Jesus acts in the way that he does because this is what God the Father is like. The traffic flows this way: The Father is → the Son acts.

It isn’t that Jesus was a nice and kind person who tried to teach us and show us God. It is that the Father is kind and generous and so Jesus imitated him.

When I look at Jesus I see the behaviour traits of the Father. The Son eats with sinners because the Father does. The Son loves the lost because the Father does. To work out his life’s mission Jesus didn’t only read the scriptures and pray, he watched to see what the Father was doing — and he did the same. Since God is love, Jesus’ life was characterised by love.

Thirdly we notice that the Father shows the Son everything he does. The Father isn’t a dad who’s poor at communicating or silent. Since the Son’s ‘job’ is to behave and act in a way that reveals the Father, the Father isn’t restrictive about what he shares with his Son. He isn’t remote and mysterious, requiring obedience but slow in giving instructions. The Father communicates clearly and lovingly.

This is our heavenly Father. This is what God is like. Regardless of what we feel God is like, this is God — and it’s soul-satisfyingly glorious. I can see why Hebrews says: ‘whoever would draw near to God must first believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.’ To not believe that God rewards is to not believe in the right God. The Bible’s God, the real God, is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is God and all other imitations are idolatrous.

Application

It can be hard sometimes to believe this about God. Our circumstances, the state of the world and unanswered prayer can make it hard for us to affirm and enjoy the goodness of the Father. It’s important at times like this that we cling to the authoritative revelation of God in Jesus Christ. We have to allow our experience to play second fiddle to the Bible when it comes to our thinking about God.

At times like this we have to, perhaps through gritted teeth, in humility and (no doubt) a fair amount of pain affirm the goodness of the Father. We have to ask for him to reveal his love to us in fresh ways and ask that since he is a communicative and kind Father that he would speak to us and show us kindness. Prayer may not remove our affliction but it can transform our experience of it.

Prayer

Father, thank you for how you revealed yourself to us in Jesus. Thank you that I’m not left having to guess what you’re like, you’ve made it obvious in Jesus. Thank you that you’re a sacrificial, kind, good and generous Father. Help me today to know your goodness and kindness to me in fresh ways. I need you. Without you I have nothing. Amen.

Day 6: God the Father: The God at work

Scripture

Today’s full reading is John 5:1-17

“But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
John 5:17

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Observation

In order for us to understand what Jesus is saying here about the Father we need to read the verse within its context, the healing of the man at Bethesda. It’s a curious thing. Often Jesus references ‘the one who sent me’, and sometimes he’ll mention just plain old ‘God’ or ‘the Lord’. What is it, I wonder, that causes Jesus at any given moment to use the word Father when describing and discussing God instead of one of the alternative words?

So far in John’s gospel it seems that Father is used whenever a point is being made about the level of familiarity and intimacy that exists between Jesus and God. It’s when Jesus wants to make the point that his heart and God’s heart are united on an issue that he opts for ‘Father’. It is also the case that Jesus uses the word Father whenever he wants people to grasp the relational intimacy and tenderness that God is capable of and is looking for with people. This appears to be the case in Jesus’ usage of the term here in chapter 5.

In this section a man is healed after 38 years as an invalid. After almost four decades of being dependant upon the kindness of others he is able to walk by himself and carry his own bedding with him. This is a remarkable moment in his life, a dramatic turning point to say the least. In one moment his entire life changed.

On the morning of his healing the man had woken up and gone about his day the same as every other. Little did the man know as he began his day that tomorrow would be very different. Tomorrow there’d be no more pain, no more discomfort, no more hopelessness, no more begging, no more shame.

What changed for this man was that he met Jesus who applied the Father’s work to his life.

The use of the word ‘work’ in the verse we’re considering here makes sense because of the setting it appears in. The context of the story explains why Jesus speaks in the way he does.

People were forbidden from working on the Sabbath (Saturday in our diaries). Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath and so ‘worked’. The man who’s been healed then gets caught carrying his mat (an act of work) and he’s doing so because Jesus told him to do so — who is now telling someone to break the Sabbath laws.

Jesus’ statement ‘the Father works until now’ means — God doesn’t stop helping people on the Sabbath. God rested on the 7th day of creation but he isn’t inactive today, he hasn’t been idle ever since. The fact that God is active and involved in the world working in it, appears to be the point Jesus is looking to make from this.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there, he never intended to.

He introduces the concept of God’s work with the personal pronoun ‘My’ and the familial title ‘Father’. In using these two words — My Father — Jesus anticipates the second half of the sentence quite naturally: ‘My Father is working, therefore I am working.’ The meaning isn’t lost on his original audience. Their response to his words? They begin to plot his death. That’s quite a reaction to what appears to be a harmless statement. Why did they react like this?

Not only does Jesus get into trouble by breaking the Sabbath BUT he even calls God his own Father, and breaks the Sabbath commandments on the basis that he’s equal with God.

That’s the problem in a nutshell. It’s a problem many modern readers don’t appreciate. Jesus spoke as one with the authority of God, as one who acted for God and who was in every real term equal with God.

So this passage of scripture is as much about the nature of the Son as it is about the character of the Father, but what can we learn about the Father from this? We can see that he:

Works all the time. This means that he’s never idle, he’s never not up to something. He’s never disinterested and distant. Even in the 38 years prior to this day the Father was ‘working’.

His Son is equal to him. He works with his Son and doesn’t simply boss him around. He is happy for the Son to be treated as equal to him. He shares his glory with his Son.

Normal rules (i.e. the Sabbath) don’t apply to the Father. He created rules and patterns for people and is not bound by them himself. If he desires to do something, he’ll do it.

Application

Where have you concluded that God has ‘stopped working’ in your life? Where have you given up hope? How does this passage of scripture give you fresh hope and faith for those areas of your life? The Father isn’t idle and inactive, he’s working and he has the authority to do whatever he wants at any moment.

Prayer

Father please help me today to trust you and to wait expectantly for what you’re going to do. Thank you that you are working in my life, that you’re a Father who is involved in my life and the world at large. Amen

Day 5: The Father and the Son

Scripture

Today’s full reading is John 3:31-35

“The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.”
John 3:35

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Observation

Before we comment on this specific verse, notice in your Bibles what Jesus says in the verse immediately before it. In verse 34 it says that God has given Jesus the Spirit without measure. Without measure; another way of saying it would be to say ‘without limit.’ Jesus lived as a man filled with the Spirit without measure or limit.

It is immediately after Jesus says this that he makes the statement that he does in verse 35. Jesus, the one who has been given the Spirit without limit, has also been given all things. Whatever Jesus could wish for or ask for he could have. What makes this statement even more fascinating is that this is a pre-resurrection statement. In other words, before Jesus died and rose again he could say this ‘the Father has given me all things.’

The Son of God has been given all things by his Father, nothing has been withheld from him. He is bountifully and inexhaustibly full of the Spirit, but also the possessor of whatever he wants or desires.

God the Father is not waiting for him to do a good job or waiting for him to be ‘successful’ in ministry.

“Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”
Psalm 2:8

The only prerequisite here (in Psalm 2:8) for the Son receiving ‘the nations’ is simple: asking. It isn’t ‘do this and this and this and then… feel free to ask.’ It is simply ‘ask me and I’ll give it to you whatever you desire!’

So, if this authority and power isn’t the result of a job well done what is it the result of?

Look again at verse 35:

‘The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.’

Love. Because the Father loves the Son he gives the Son all things.

God the Father isn’t acting out of character when he does this and as such it reveals a few things about his character:

  • He is loving. He has always loved, will always love and never was there a time when he didn’t love.
  • He is a generous gift giver motivated to give by his love and not by our (or his son’s) performance.
  • The apple of his eye, the centre of his affection is his Son, and if you’re a believer, you’re hidden ‘in the Son’ (Col. 3:4)

Application

This is brilliant, brilliant and refreshing. This is a breath of fresh air to me and reveals a God so desirable that I feel as though I was made to know him. The loving, generous, gift giving Father is God.

Apart from giving me confidence to pray it makes me ponder. If God the Father has loved his Son like this, if the Son is the object of the Father’s affection, if the Son is a source of delight for the Father then there must be plenty more to Jesus than I have at first realised. This thought draws my mind deeper into the intoxicating goodness of God the Trinity and it is here that I find perfect contentment and rest for my soul.

Prayer

Father show me exactly what it is about Jesus that has captured your love like this. I want to to know him more like this and I want to love him more. Thank you that you are a generous and loving Father, please help me to reflect your generosity and kindness to the people in my life today.

Day 4: The Father Hasn’t Walked Out On Us

Scripture

Today’s full reading is John 2:13-25

“And he told those who sold pigeons, ‘take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
John 2:16

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Observation

It’s clear from the story that there must have been some under-handed activity taking place in the temple. Jesus would not have been angry simply at the presence of trade in the temple since it was something permitted for pilgrim worshippers in Moses. There must have been something else going on for him to get so angry.

It can only be for a couple of reasons. Either there was a lot of dishonest practise taking place, or (and this is perhaps more likely from the actual words themselves) the trade had grown and taken priority over the worship. The trade had become primary and worship and prayer, secondary. What was at first a permitted necessity (to ensure that travellers to the temple wouldn’t have to transport their animals for sacrifice from miles around) had become the main focus. The outer courts had become the equivalent to a shopping mall. Buy your animals for sacrifice yes, but buy also a new outfit for the party or snap-up this great deal on this and that.

I can well imagine that whereas before people would have gone to the temple only for temple things, now people would go to shop and run errands. Worship & prayer was just one of the many things a person could do at temple.

All of which is useful background as we home in on the Father mentioned here:

So what can we learn about the Father from these verses?

  • The Father had a house.
  • The Father could be approached by sinful men and women.
  • The Father could be known by sinful men and women.

Application

This impacts me in a couple of ways:

Firstly I can see that God the Father has always sought a way to live with us in much more than simply a general omnipresent way. As the light of the sun is both everywhere and yet has a specific source so it is with God. The Father is both everywhere and yet also somewhere specific. He has always wanted for that ‘somewhere specific’ to be among us, his creation. In the Garden of Eden God walked with Adam and after the Fall God laid out plans to make it possible to still live among us despite our sin. This is how the Father behaves.

Secondly although there are great things to be said about him and great things to be known about him, the more startling reality is that we can know him and experience him personally — everyone can.

The Father is a father who is near and locatable. He hasn’t left us. That needs to be said again:

He hasn’t left us.

If that was true of him then, how much more is it true now that Christ has come? Jesus has shown us more clearly what the Father is like. In fact we can take it further than that; he has sent his Spirit into us so that we are now individually and corporately as the church the temple of God. We are the dwelling place of God. The Father has taken up residence by his Spirit in each one of his followers.

The Father hasn’t left us, he is in you by his Spirit.

Prayer

Thank you Father. Thank you that you are near to me, thank you that you have made yourself known to us and made yourself available to us. Thank you that by your Spirit you live with me today. Please fill me with your Spirit an help me to do all that you have for me today. I need you, I want you and I’m amazed that you would make yourself so near to me. Amen.

Day 3: The Father’s Side

Scripture

Today’s full reading is John 1:14-23

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
John 1:18

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Observation

Let’s look at this verse together and walk through what it means. Keep it in front of you if you can as we go.

The statement contained in this verse is linked to the statement about grace and truth mentioned in the previous one. The law, we’re told, came through Moses whereas grace and truth came through Jesus. It’s interesting to note that the arrival of grace and truth, in the way it’s written here, reads as though it is comparable to the promise made by God in Moses’ day. The word that’s often used for this promise is ‘covenant’ which means ‘binding promise’. In the way that John introduces the idea here it seems that grace and truth is not just a nice concept it’s a new covenant, a new binding promise between man and God. It’s a covenant based not on the written law but on the character of God, the one abounding in grace and truth.

The Father’s side.

The word used here for ‘side’ can also be translated as ‘bosom’. Elsewhere it’s used in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-32). When Lazarus dies it is said that he is taken by the angels to Abraham’s side, a euphemism for the place of rest and peace after death. To be at someone’s side seems to have that meaning attached to it. It’s an intimate place of identification and belonging after death.

Now, let’s focus on the Father.

Here, in verse 18, the Father is described as one who is able to be known by and because of the Son. The Son is full of the same stuff as the Father (v14) and has come from the place of intimate nearness to him (his side), to make him known (this otherwise unseen God). So the Father, it can be said, is seen in the Son and because of the Son. This reveals a Father who is familiar and tender, allowing the Son to reside in his bosom. The image that springs to mind is of John (the writer of this gospel) reclining at the table with Jesus at the Last Supper, his head resting on his chest in an intimate expression of friendship and acceptance.

This is what God the Father is like. He is someone who, though unseen and invisible, sent his Son from the place of intimate friendship and nearness to be with us in order that we might see him and be drawn to him and his side, just like the Son is.

Application

Do you relate to the Father like that, as one you can be affectionately familiar with? The sheer fact that the Father has a ‘side’ at all reveals an aspect of God we may not be too used to relating to. If you’re a Christian then you can approach him confidently (Heb. 4:16) today and enjoy friendship with him.

Why not express that boldness today by jumping into random moments of praise and thankfulness at regular intervals in the day. Why not set an hourly alarm (on your watch or phone perhaps) and every time it goes off (or vibrates in your pocket!) thank the Father for something from the hour just past and ask him for something you need help with.

Prayer

Father, thank you that you love me. Today I want to know you more, delight in you more and grow in friendship with you more. Help me to remember you and enjoy your company throughout the day today.

Day 2: God the Father: Grace & Truth

Scripture

Today’s full reading is John 1:1-17

“and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14

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Observation

To begin with, let’s ask a couple of questions about this verse: What is glory and whose glory have we seen?

Glory; it’s a hard word to properly define and explain. It’s a word that’s similar to majesty except less inseparable from royalty, and it’s shinier in appearance. The dictionary uses words like resplendent, honour, praiseworthy to describe it. It could also be simplified to mean ‘value’ or ‘worth’ and in this sense John (the writer of this gospel) is saying, ‘we have seen his value.’ or ‘we have seen how worthy he is’.

But whose value or worth is John talking about? We can’t just assume we know the answer to this.

The answer John provides is ‘glory as of the only son from the Father’, and what I find so fascinating here is the way that it reads — only son from the Father — it sounds like a title or name. Jesus is (take a deep breath) the ‘only-son-from-the-Father’, rather like how many of my friends from Africa have names that actually mean something, like my friend Msizi, who’s name (Msisiwhethu) means ‘God is my helper’.

Jesus is the one who isn’t just called ‘The-Only-Son-From-The-Father’, he actually lives up to it. He is the only one whose entire life and being can claim to be like that of the Father’s enough that it can be said of him that ‘he’s the true son’. Based purely on Jesus’ character, behaviour and life God the Father could say (and does) ‘you’re a true son’.

Understanding this is important, and understanding it means that whatever we can say about Jesus’ character we can say about his Father. Jesus has always been ‘Son’, therefore it is true that God has also always been ‘Father’. God is a creator and a ruler, but before he was those things (before he made anything or ruled over anything) he was still Father.

Finally it can also be said that since Jesus is ‘full of grace and truth’ the Father is also, or more accurately — the reason the Son is FULL (bursting to overflowing) of grace and truth, is precisely because the Father is.

This is our God and as one author puts it: ‘there is no God behind Jesus’ back.’

Application

Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that the Son is different in character to the Father; that the Son is approachable and the Father austere, that the Son is full of grace and the Father lacking in it.

This is not the case and we must adjust our thinking about the Father if we’re to know him as he really is, rather than as we’ve come to think he is by taking our lead from the poor imitations of him we are surrounded by.

If this is a problem for you why not use today’s prayer to begin a ‘decluttering’ of wrong ideas about the Father.

Prayer

Thank you Father that you are FULL of grace and truth. Help me to ‘get my head around that’. Help me to know you as you actually are, not as I’ve been conditioned to think you are. Help me to see how you manage to hold both grace and truth in tension and aren’t soft or lacking in either of them. Help me as well to behave like you toward others and show them the kind of grace and kindness as well as truth that you have shown me.

Day 1: The Forgotten Father

“Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'”
Luke 3:21-22

All of us are the son or daughter of some father but few of us have ever heard words from our fathers like Jesus hears here at his baptism.

This is a problem.

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The revelation of God in Jesus is the crowning moment of human history. It is the moment the Earth had been waiting for, the moment that creation up until that point had been holding its breath in anticipation of. At that moment, when the Son of God walked upon the Earth we saw more clearly than any previous generation had ever done that God the creator, ruler, author and sustainer was, originally and eternally Father.

According to Doug Wilson (no relation to Andrew I’m afraid) ‘The Father is the forgotten member of the Trinity.’ We talk about having a ‘personal relationship with Jesus’ and are familiar with being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ but whoever heard an altar call to come and ‘know the Father’?

There’s a lot we’re missing out on in our Christian lives if we don’t learn to love and appreciate God as Father. All of us have a father hunger within us, an immaterial invisible ache that longs for and calls out for a father, but not just any father; we long for the true Father.

For the next 5 weeks I want to invite you to join in with a journey of discovery. I want us, together, to explore in detail through the pages of John’s gospel exactly what God the Father is like. I want those of us who are Christians to discover just how good and affirming our Father is so that we might hear, maybe for the first time, those words the Father spoke over Jesus; spoken over us as well.

To draw out the richness of this revelation and to help us become transformed by it, each day we’ll publish a scripture for you to read, a verse to focus on and some observations to go along with it. We’ll use the method of Bible reading I’ve always found helpful, explained by the acronym S.O.A.P.

S – scripture
O – observation
A – application
P – prayer

I’d like to encourage you to read the text for yourself, jot down your own observations and applications, and then read our blogs or watch our videos to hopefully get a little more out of it for yourself.

The daily readings and verses for the first week are:

Day 1: John 1:1-17
Day 2: John 1:17-24
Day 3: John 2:13-25
Day 4: John 3:31-35
Day 5: John 5:1-17

I’m praying that we’ll all discover God the Father as he actually is: generous, loving, life-giving and good. I’m hoping that we’ll find our father hunger satisfied, maybe for the first time, not by a counterfeit god or an imitation father but but by the true and living eternal God.

Here goes.

Jez