A PASTORAL LETTER
Dear family,
My introduction to the new series on the Fatherhood of God was hardly a sentimental invitation to climb onto God’s lap. Thank you for your attention on Sunday. As part of the introductory preparation for what is to come, I sought to identify some important realities that we have to consider:
• First, is the fact that we are pursuing this study in our present general cultural context where a father’s absence is more the reality than a father’s presence. One commentator observes: “A generation ago an American child could reasonably experience to grow up with his/her father. Today, an American child can reasonably expect not to.”
• Secondly, and consequently, it has to be noted that for those whose lives have been denied or deprived of loving and safe human fathering, or actually damaged by bad fathering, it is very hard to immediately internalize truths about the father-heart of God. That is why I identified at least ten common traits that characterize specific experiences of bad fathering and therefore specific obstacles to such truth.
• Thirdly, I alluded to the fact that many people decide which member of the trinity they will prefer to relate to, in a way that often distances other aspects of God’s personhood. The Holy Spirit is comforting and more motherly, and Jesus is fine as our brother but God somehow remains distant and inaccessible. I briefly showed some of the consequences for faith when we separate Jesus or the Holy Spirit from God the Father.
There are two great confessional cries that capture the heart throb of a believer, that are expressions of what I will call, guttural glory.
1. “Jesus Christ is Lord!” This is what we proclaim to the world in our confession of faith and personal salvation. It is the witness of our faith.
2. “Abba Father!” This is what we declare, not primarily to others but to God himself. This is our confession to God of who He is to us, the expression of our assured son-ship. It is the worship of the faithful.
Together, these are the two non-negotiable confessions of the nature of our relationship with God. As has been well taught by the saints down the years, these two cries together describe and define the essential activity of the Holy Spirit. It is the main business of the Spirit to fuel and feed this relationship between the believer and the Son and the believer and the Father, and to reveal to us the mystery and majesty, the joy and the delight, of the relationship between the Father and the Son, into which we have been invited. Everything else, the consequent gifts and graces, manifestations and ministries, is all a secondary issue (not lesser) to the need for us to be living our lives under the lordship of Jesus Christ, knowing with a full and joyful assurance that God is our Father.
But sadly, and tragically, just as there is an epidemic of familial fatherlessness in society at large, there is also a large number of professing Christians sitting in the pews whose lives are blighted and bound by spiritual fatherlessness. That is why I want to give a little attention over the next few weeks to this second confessional cry, “Abba Father!” because the inability to make this confession with full assurance will, by definition, be an expression of a lack of an assurance about son-ship, about daughterhood, and if this is the case, there will be so many debilitating consequences, including two particular losses:
1. No expectation of a good inheritance: the loss of assurance about sonship subverts our confidence about present provision and certainly undermines our hope for the future. Present faith and future hope take a beating.
2. No experience of a maturing holiness: the weakening of our sanctification (being like the son), resulting from the weakening of our assurance of our justification (becoming a son) will not be shored up by any amount of experiential charisma. The cosmetics of feelings cannot cover the decay of faith.
Essentially, I want to be biblical and encourage you from the text, both in an understanding of the fatherhood of God and in the experience of what it is therefore to be a son or a daughter of our Father. But although this will be an intensely theological pursuit, by definition it is going to raise any number of issues that run the gamut from the broadly cultural and societal, to the very specific and maybe raw matters that are deeply familial and personal. To identify these issues is to raise basic questions about our identity. It will be impossible to travel this journey without our hearts being stirred, and when things get stirred, things sometimes get unsettled, especially the sediment of unresolved emotions, unsure convictions, unfulfilled needs, unhealed pasts, unassured beliefs. It is my conviction that longing for Father, looking for Father is basic to the quest for our true identity. Consequently, there is much pain that arises when there is no confidence, no assurance of who our Father is, for that translates into a deep subversion of our own understanding of who we are.
• I’ll spend some time dealing with the fathering of God, and consequently with NT teaching about what it means to be a son or daughter of the Father. Many who profess faith do not live as sons and daughters. It is not the spirit of adoption that defines their security but an orphan spirit. Paul lets us know that there is a big difference between living as a son and being a slave again to fear. The recovery of sonship is one of the great bondage breakers. What are the differences between a son and a slave? Which are we in fact more alike?
• Inevitably, we will listen to Jesus, we will watch Jesus because he said that no-one comes to the Father but by Him. We’ll look afresh at what the gospels reveal about the Father through Jesus. Do you remember when Phillip said, “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough for us?” (By the way, that is a wonderful heart cry for this series: Show us the Father – it is a secret of spiritual sufficiency and security.) Jesus’ answer, in the form of a question to Phillip, said it all. How can you ask that when I have been with you all this time?
• I intend to look in detail at one of the most revelatory communications about Jesus’ Father, our Father, in the parable of the two sons in Luke 15 – we’ll probably spend at least 3 sessions in this, maybe 4. I will begin our study with this passage.
• It might be helpful to look at the consequences and implications of God’s fathering for our understanding and expression of human fathering, but also of spiritual fathering when it comes to how we are raising the next generation spiritually. How, as a church, do we bear our sons and daughters? What biblical principles inform our practice in how we spiritually parent?
Obviously, this series is just part of our teaching diet this year, so it will be limited to about 10-12 messages. But we are going to bring the limitations of time, the limitations of the speaker, the limitations of our own experience and understanding to the Father, and simply ask him to do what he does best: minister to the fatherless.
Pastorally yours,
Stuart
http://www.christourshepherd.org/pastlet.htm (and follow links to download MP3 audio of sermon)