As a pastor for more than sixty years the sermons I preached and the articles I wrote for publication dealing with Father’s Day were focused on what God’s Word has to say about the responsibility every father has – to himself, to his children, to the mother of his children, and to his extended family.
This Father’s Day I will depart from that pattern. My Father’s Day focus this year will be on our Heavenly Father. It makes a difference whether or not we believe in God – and the kind of God we believe He is. In fact, it is the most important part of our experience, for what we believe about God determines what we believe about life, our duty, and our destiny. So, what kind of God is revealed on the pages of the Bible?
In the Old Testament God reveals Himself through the Law and the prophets. Then, in the fullness of time, when the time was right, He sent forth His Son. The book of Hebrews puts it this way: “The Son is the express image of God’s person” (Hebrew 1:3). That is, Jesus is the epitome of God. It is why He said to Philip, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) – like Father, like Son. So, what do we learn about our heavenly Father’s love by looking at the Son? We can put it in three simple phrases:
First, He never lets us down. He has promised to be with us always – when we are on the top of mountains and when we walk through dark valleys. In one community where I served as pastor a young man was killed in an automobile wreck. His mother and sister blamed God. The young man had been driving drunk at a high rate of speed. God never promised to save us FROM difficulty; He promised to be WITH us through every difficulty. To look at God as our private genie, or as Santa Claus who gives us everything we want, and who does what we ask Him to do, would make Him our servant and ourselves His master.
Second, He never lets us off. God is not only a God of love — He is also a holy God. Anyone who looks at Jesus must recognize the importance of the tenderness of God toward the sinner. But, at the same time, it must not be overlooked that God hates sin. It is why Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the temple. God’s laws declaring that sin will be punished have not been repealed (see Galatians 6:6-7).
Hangovers still come the morning after. The person who dabbles in dangerous drugs will pay a penalty. The person who sows wild oats will have to face a difficult harvest day. Punishment follows our sin as inevitably as the burned spot follows a blaze. God loves the sinner, but He punishes sin. He never lets us down, and He never lets us off. But the story of God’s love is at this point not complete.
Third, He never lets us go. The greatest thing about genuine love is that it keeps on loving in spite of everything. No matter how often its favors are spurned or refused, no matter how poignantly it is wounded, or how far away the loved one wanders, it always holds on, and never gives up. We learn what our Heavenly Father is like when we look at His Son. It stands out above everything else. It is like Father, like Son.
Jesus told us about a son who showed himself ungrateful and turned his back on his father, went out to a far country, and threw his life away. But the father always kept the candle burning in his window and kept watch for his return. One day he saw someone coming in the distance. As he came nearer and nearer the father exclaimed, “He walks like my son! He looks like my Son! He IS my son!” The prodigal had come home!
That father reminds me of God. Are you in a far country? If so, He is waiting for you to come home.
