Christ Church

Father Abraham

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Introduction

 

God’s covenant with Abraham unfolds in the course of several episodes in the first half of Genesis. In Gen. 12:1-3, God first called Abram in Haran and announced his promise to him. Here he commanded Abram to move forward to a new land in faith, forsaking the life that he once knew, and as a result God would bless him so that he would become a great nation, a nation that would bless the entire world, a nation that would eventually topple all who stood against it. God repeated and expanded on this promise to Abram several times in the following chapters – Gen. 13:14-16, 15:5, 17:1-8 and 22:17-18. In Gen. 17, as God once more renewed this covenant with Abram, he gave two signs of this covenant to Abraham: he commands Abram to be circumcised (17:9-27) and he renames Abram, changing him from Abram to Abraham (17:5).

Abraham

Abram’s name originally meant – “Father is exalted.” Remember that he was born in Ur and, according to Josh 24:2, his father worshipped the pagan gods of Ur. Therefore, it is likely that this “exalted father” was not necessarily God the Father. But God changed Abram’s name, making him a new kind of father. He added the Hebrew word hamon to his name. Our English translation renders this as “many nations.” This is accurate as the translation of the passage into Greek in Rom. 4:17 shows us. However, it is a very mild translation of a very vivid image. Hamon specifically refers to a noise.

The Promise

This image is consistent with the promises of God to Abraham that pile up throughout Genesis. Consider a brief overview of the covenant with Abraham.

First we see the continued promise that this was something that would be realized through Abraham’s children. This was surprising to Abraham because when the promise first came (Gen. 12 and Gen 15), Abraham had no children because his wife was barren. But the promise was that Sarah would give him a son. Even when Abraham’s name was changed (Gen. 17), he still had not had a son by Sarah and was hoping that the promise could be realized through Ishmael. But God promised that this great blessing would come through Abraham’s children.

Second, we see that this was a promise of blessing. God promised Abraham “I will bless you” (Gen. 12:2) “blessing I will bless you” (Gen. 22:17). But the way that God would bless Abraham was by turning Abraham into a blessing for the world.
“I will bless those that bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (Gen. 12:3). God sends his covenanted people into the world and those that receive them with blessing receive also the blessing of God’s covenant, with the result that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3, cf. 22:18).

Third, we see that the promise went from a single seed to innumerable descendents, from a single nation, to all nations, from a single land, to all of the world. “I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you” (Gen. 17:6)
“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).

“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 22:18).

And they would be an innumerable host. “And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then you descendants also could be numbered” (Gen. 13:16). ‘Then he brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward the heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be’” (Gen. 15:5). “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore” (Gen. 22:17).

The New Testament

But the authors of the New Testament reveal to us that there is even more to this promise. First, the Apostle Paul tells us in Gal. 3:8-9 that this covenant with Abraham was actually the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When Abraham got up and left his family, left his people, left his country and went where God told him to go, that was him hearing the Gospel. And when you receive the Gospel, you receive the same blessing, which he received, and you become that same blessing to the world.

Second, Paul argues here that not only was Abraham receiving the same Gospel which we receive, he also says that Abraham received that Gospel the same way that we receive it – through faith. In Gal. 3:6 and in Rom. 4:3, he points out that Abraham received this promise, not by works of the law, but by believing in it just like us. “So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Gal. 3:9).

Third, Paul argues in Rom. 4 that not only did Abraham receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but we have also received the promises that were given to Abraham (Rom. 4:16). Who is the seed of Abraham? Those who have his faith. And those who have an Abrahamic faith, have the Abrahamic promises.

Abrahamic Faith

This means that back when we were trying to understand what it meant for Abraham to be promised that his descendents would be hamon nations and we were imagining the army getting suited up for battle, we were picturing ourselves. We are the blessing to the world, because we carry the Gospel to the world. “Go, make disciples of all the nations” (Mat. 28:19).

This means that we are an advancing force. Abraham was promised, “your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies” (Gen. 22:17). That only happens when you are marching on your enemies’ strongholds. When Rebekah left to marry Isaac, here brothers prophesied of the blessing that she was stepping into “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands; and may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them” (Gen. 24:60). And Jesus, knowing that his church was the seed that inherited this promise said of the church “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Mat. 16:18).

So in the week to come think about where God has put you on offense. Where can you advance this week? You are called to be a blessing to the world. Where do you have opportunities to be that blessing? Where is the world encountering you and having to make up its mind as whether it will respond to you with blessing or cursing?

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Honoring Fathers (Father Hunger 7)

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Introduction

Human flourishing depends in large measure on the faithfulness and happiness of families, and this depends, in its turn, on the honor rendered to the parents by the children. This is, the apostle Paul tells us, the first commandment with a promise. The promise originally applied to the land of Canaan, as it was spoken here at Sinai. The apostle Paul speaks the same words from the heavenly Mt. Zion, and he says that the words of promise apply to the entire earth—whether Ephesus, or New York, or Beijing. So what does it mean?

The Texts

“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Ex. 20:12).

“Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth” (Eph. 6:2-3).

Summary of the Texts

The Ten Words given at Mt. Sinai are God’s summary of His entire law, just as the two greatest commandments (love God and love your neighbor) are a summary. The Ten Word summarize the whole, and the Two Words summarize the ten.

Honor must be shown, and it must be shown to both father and mother (Ex. 20:12). The reason that is given is so that those who show this honor might have a long life in the land that God was giving them (v. 12). This was spoken to Jewish children at Mt. Sinai. Centuries later, the apostle repeats the command, only this time to Gentile children in Ephesus (Eph. 6:2). He points out that the command is the first one with a promise (v. 2), and he reiterates the promise—extending it to the whole earth. We are no longer limited to the land of Canaan, but this promise now applies to any place where Christians might live.

A Brief Word to Mothers

There are two things that need to be said as an aside to mothers. First, you may have noticed that the text this morning is just as insistent upon the honoring of mothers as it is of fathers. So why this long series on father hunger? The answer has to do with how men and women sin differently, about which more in a minute. It is not that mothers are unimportant, or that a series of messages for them would be out of place. A doctor might talk to you for a long time about the importance of Vitamin D, and you should not conclude from this talk that he hates Vitamin E. We can’t talk about everything all the time, and in our generation, in this moment, we need a particular focus on fathers, a particular word to fathers.

But while we are here, the second thing is that women can’t compensate for father hunger by being more motherly. Women are gravity, and men are centrifugal force. Women cluster, and men escape. Women overcommit and men under commit. Women are soft and men are hard. This is why we don’t have a comparable phenomenon like “mother hunger.”We have mother troubles—frequently—but it is a different ball game. If men under engage and women over engage, they can both key off the sins of the other sex, which then makes them double down in their own problems.

Tangible Honor

As we consider this, always remember that honor must start in the heart, but if it ends there, it isn’t honor. Honor must be expressed through words, symbols, actions, or gestures. Honor is among the most incarnational of the virtues. It must have feet and hands.

Teaching the Showing of Honor

A father can teach and lead his children in how to show him honor, and the first thing to recognize is that this must be done because he seeks the blessing for his children that this command promises. He doesn’t need the honor himself, he is not being an honor-hound. He is seeking the blessing of having the kind of children who show honor, along with the subsequent blessings that come from that. If the father is being a needy bucket, and he demands honor in order to fill up his internal ache, then he will suffocate his children with intolerable demands. There is a kind of seeking honor that is destructive (John 5:44).

The first rule of teaching something is that you must demonstrate that you know how to do it yourself. You teach your children to honor you by showing them how you honor their grandparents. If your parents are alive, show them in real time. If your parents are deceased, then honor them in the telling of stories. All of you fathers have fathers. Model what you would like your children to grow up into.

Showing Honor

Small children show honor through cheerful obedience (Eph. 6:1-4). Not only must children obey, but they must do so “as unto the Lord.”This means that obedience must be quick, it must be heart-felt, it must be cheerful, it must be immediate. How would you respond if Jesus Himself asked you to do whatever it is? You might be tempted to say that Jesus would never ask you to stay inside on a Saturday morning to clean your bedroom . . . oh, but He did.

The duty of obedience passes as children grow, but the duty of honor never does. The Lord Jesus teaches us that grown children with financial resources have a duty to honor their parents that way (Mark 7:10-13).

Honor Knits Generations Together

We are disciples of Jesus in the first instance. He tells us that we have to hate father and mother (Luke 14:26), and the account in Matthew explains this as not loving father or mother more than we love Jesus Christ (Matt. 10:37). If we love Jesus Christ above all things, then we are in fellowship with the source of all the love in the universe. If we refuse to do so, then it doesn’t matter what we make into our idol, we are not in fellowship with the source of all love. And if we are not in fellowship with that love, then even if you idolize your father, he will be get less honor, respect, and love than if he were number two.

So we are called to Christian honor, honor rendered as part of our discipleship. This is not honor rendered blindly in a tribal, patriarchal way. As intelligent honor, it is used by God to knit each generation to the next one.

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Repentance and Fatherhood (Father Hunger 6)

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Introduction

The word repentance means a “change of mind,” but in the biblical vocabulary this entails much more than mere intellectual assent to a different proposition than was held to before. If sincere, it represents an entire turning, and it includes what we would call the heart.

The Text

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (Mal. 4:5-6).

Summary of the Text

We know on the authority of the Lord Jesus that this passage is talking about His ministry. We know this because Jesus identified “Elijah the prophet” in this text with the ministry of John the Baptist (Matt. 11:14). Before the great day of the Lord, Elijah will come and in his ministry of repentance (turning the people back to God), he will also have the effect of turning people back to one another—particularly the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers.

In this chapter of Malachi, the day is coming when the wicked will be consumed like dry grass in an oven (v. 1). But for those who fear God, the Sun of righteousness will arise, and there will be healing in His wings (v. 2). The result will be that the godly will tread down the wicked (v. 3). The godly (members of the new covenant, remember) are charged to remember the law of Moses, given at Horeb for all Israel (v. 4). Elijah is coming before this great day (v. 5), and he will be the basis of reconciliation between fathers and their children, and children and their fathers (v. 6).

A Turned Heart, A Given Heart

In Proverbs 23:26, Solomon pleads with his son. He says, “My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.” In our text, the reconciliation is described as a turning of hearts, and here we have the giving of the heart. The parallelism in this proverb shows us that the giving of the heart involves imitation (willingness to observe the father’s ways). Fighting the natural impulse of imitation is what drives estrangement, and surrendering that fight is what constitutes the reconciliation.

When a father asks for this—“give me your heart”—what is he pleading for? He is asking his children to imitate him. This is what children do naturally (Eph. 5:1; cf. 1 Cor. 4:16; 1 Cor. 11:1), unless that natural impulse has been continuously insulted. If a father says, “Give me your heart,” what will he say if the question comes back, “Why?”

Two Kinds of Authority

There are two kinds of authority that a father may have. He always has at least one of them, simply by virtue of being the father, but he may or may not have the other. Think of it in this way.

There is the authority of having a checkbook and checking account. You own it. Your name is in the upper left hand corner. You are the authorized signatory on the account. You have the full authority to write checks from that account. No one questions it. That is one kind of authority. The second kind of authority is what comes from having a good bit of money in that same account. Applying our illustration, the former authority is simply positional authority. The second kind of authority is what we call a moral authority. The former argues, “I am your father.”The latter simply knows, “I am your father.”

Too many fathers want to be able to write checks simply because they own the checkbook, and not because they have made any deposits in it.

What They Need Protection From

We have already learned that a man’s basic marching orders call him to provide and to protect (Gen. 2:15). Since we are imitating God the Father, we should see that before providing “the bacon,” a man must first provide himself. And because we are living in the kind of world where protection is needed, a man’s first impulse to protect should be informed by the realization that he is the first one his family might need protection from. Eve certainly needed protection from the serpent, but prior to that, she needed protection from her abdicating protector.

Remember that when St. George fails to fight the dragon, in that instance, St. George has become the dragon.

Children Included

When this work is accomplished, we see that the healing is done on both sides of the divide. Fathers who have been harsh, distant, demanding, or abdicating are given a heart of repentance, and they turn (with that heart of repentance) back to their children. But if the children have been provoked to anger (Eph. 6:4), if the children have been embittered because their father had not been mindful of their frame (Ps. 103:13-14), the Spirit of God moves in them, and they are able to lay that bitterness down. They are able to forgive. If someone has wronged you, being bitter about it is simply saving a souvenir from that special occasion. But if you hated the play, then why would you save the ticket stubs for your scrapbook?

Healing in His Wings

The call to repentance is the entryway into grace. We are called to surrender our pride, and to come into His grace, in which we are invited to stand (Rom. 5:2).

Returning to the point of the text, we assume that the fathers and the children in it are not where they ought to have been. When the healing of God comes, it is healing where there was sickness. There is restoration where there was ruin. There is reconciliation where there was estrangement. This is what the gospel does. This is why Jesus came.

This is why it is no good despairing—it is entirely beside the point to say that it is “too late for you.” If the preacher declares that Jesus came for those who are all messed up, is it a refutation to say that this cannot mean you—because you are all messed up? Jesus came for those who are sick, not for those who are healthy. He came for the sinners, not for the righteous (Mark 2:17). Don’t argue that this can’t mean you, for you are sick and sinful.

We preach a message of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18). And if we are reconciled to God (Rom. 5:1), then it follows that other kinds of reconciliation will fall into place (1 John 1:7).

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What Fathers Are For (Father Hunger 2)

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

The fact that God is a perfect Father is a two-edged sword, and we must take care that we not emphasize just one of them—lest we damage our souls . . . and our families. God is a perfect Father, and we are fallen creatures. This means that God is a perfect Father as an example, in front of us, and this means that we always fall short. This is one edge. This is why a series of messages on biblical fatherhood could be filled with condemnation. But here is another edge, cutting and piercing, but not like a sword slash in battle. It is more like a surgeon’s scalpel, bringing healing and restoration. God is not only a perfect Father in front of sinners, He is a perfect Father to sinners. He does for us what fathers ought to do. And so it is that we are not consumed.

The Text

“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15).

Summary of the Text

This is of course from the creation account. Just prior to this verse, we have a description of the Garden of Eden, and of the two trees that God placed in it (v. 9). We are told about the goodly rivers that came from the one river flowing from Eden (v. 10), and we are also told of the metals and precious stones to be found there (v. 12). Just after our verse, we have the prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (v. 17), and a description of the creation of the woman (v. 18ff.).

In verse 15, the Lord God took the man, put him in the place prepared for him, and gave him his directions. He was put into the Garden in order to do two things. He was put there to “dress” and to “keep” it. These two verbs describe for us what men are for. The word for dress means to tend, or till, or serve. The word for keep means to watch, keep, protect, preserve. And so Adam was placed in the Garden, and he was told to provide for it, and to protect it. Those marching orders took on a much higher level of significance in the verses that follow, when Eve was created. She was a garden within this garden, and so he was called to provide for her, and to protect her.

The command that is given in verse 17 gives us the sin of commission that Adam was guilty of (Gen. 3:6). But we often overlook the sin of omission that was clearly involved. He was told to provide for his wife, and yet the serpent came to her and provided for her. He was told to protect his wife, and yet he stood by and failed to protect his wife from the serpent. He had been given the prohibition before she was created, and he knew directly from God what he was supposed to do. So be assured of this—when you find yourself doing something you ought not be doing, it is almost always preceded by a neglect of something you ought to have been doing, and yet did not.

Justification and Sanctification

Godly fatherhood (on a day-to-day basis) must absolutely be based on the free grace of God that is offered to us in Christ Jesus. We are justified in Him, which means that when God looks at you, considering whether to deal with you at all, what He sees is the absolute perfection of Jesus Christ. In the free justification that God offers (because of the cross), what kind of father are you? You are a perfect father, because Christ was and is perfect, and His perfection has been imputed to you. This sets you free from the curse of condemnation (Rom. 8:1), and it means that you can set about the work of being a father to your children without fear or guilt. The things you will apply as you and your wife give yourselves to the work of being Christian parents belongs entirely to the realm of sanctification. In being a father, you are not trying to earn anything from God (for all has already been given). You are rather trying to give something to your children, in free imitation of the free gift that has been given to you.

Never forget the gospel in this. You are not a bramble bush trying to grow an apple so that you might be turned into an apple tree as a reward. You are not a coyote going baa baa in order to turn into a sheep.

Provision

All that said, your natural instinct with your children should be yes. Not the yes of a push-over, or the yes of a fearful and craven doormat, but the yes of a father. And when you say no (think ahead to the second category of protection), you are doing it because the yes involved is as plain as anything to you, and is still invisible to your children. All they can see is no, but you should know better. You say no to candy before dinner because you want to say yes with the dinner. You say no to lazing around on the couch because you want to say yes to the productivity of a lifelong work ethic. In this realm, motive is everything.

Fathers who say no simply because they can are being diabolical fathers. What do demons do? They say no just because (1 Tim. 4:3).

A man who does not provide for his household is involved in denying the faith, and is worse than an infidel (1 Tim. 5:8).

Protection

We must not allow ourselves a false and pristine view of the nature of the unfallen world. The first bloodshed was before the fall, when God took a rib from the side of Adam (Gen. 2:21). The sleep that Adam was put into was a type of death, before the fall. Death and resurrection patterns are more violent now (John 19:34), but they nonetheless existed before the fall. And God required an unfallen man to protect an unfallen woman from an enemy, and He required this before either of them had sinned. They sinned because they did not treat that enemy as an enemy. So fighting did not bring in sin. A lack of fighting brought in sin. Had war broken out in the Garden, it would still have been a perfect world. It would have remained a perfect world.

Fathers, what does a protector do? What does a watchman on a tower do? What does a security guard by the doorway do? He looks for enemies. He is suspicious. He is suspicious on behalf of his teenaged daughters (who are as a class not suspicious), and he should do this with a fierce loyalty. When a daughter says that “some boy” is “so nice,” a father’s eyes should narrow. But your model for security should be that of a fierce Levite with a spear guarding the sanctuary, and not a TSA agent full of hassles for everybody. Again, why are you saying no?

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Anger

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The Texts

“Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul.” (Proverbs 22:24-25)

“He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.” (Proverbs 14:29)

Hot Noses

A literal rendering of these two texts would start something like – Prov. 22:24 “Do not be a friend with a lord of the nose . . .” And Prov. 14:29 “A long nose will understand much . . .” These make a little more sense when you understand the Hebrew idiom for anger and patience – a hot nose.

Something doesn’t go your way, seems to be unfair, seems not the way you want it to be, not the way that it should be, and you get hot in the face.

Notice what this heat in the face is inspired by – some perception of injustice.

Anger is an intense and burning urge to see that which we think is wrong, uneven, and unbalanced, to be made right, even, and balanced. It is an urgent sensation that you have been somehow wronged and that justice needs to be done.

Two Kinds of Anger

This means that it is possible for anger to be right and godly. And it is possible for us to be consumed by an ungodly anger.

Most obviously, God is capable of great, righteous anger. Rom. 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men. . .” Throughout the prophets we hear of the coming wrath of God and the day of his wrath. John the Baptist preached about the coming wrath of God (Lk. 3). And the book of Revelation is filled with vivid descriptions of God’s wrath, poured out like bowls of wine on earth or described as a winepress that all the unrighteous will be tread in. Psalm 2 tells the kings of earth to “kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little . . .” God has intended to display his wrath. “What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction . . .” Rom. 9:22). But his wrath is entirely just, directed at the unrighteousness of men.

But then there is man’s anger. The first recorded instance of anger in Scripture is Cain. Cain is convinced that God has wronged him by not giving him the favour that he thought was owed to him.

Other great moments in the anger of men –

Jonah 3:10-4:5. “And it got hot.” Jonah sees that God is having mercy on Nineveh and asks to die because things are so bad. He is convinced that the just thing would be for Nineveh to be nuked. And it gets him hot to see Nineveh get mercy.

Luke 15:28. “But he was angry and would not go in . . .” This is really the same story all over again. In both of these stories a man is angry seemingly on behalf of justice, while the one who truly had the right to be angry has given mercy.

Wrath of Man vs. Wrath of God

So we see God getting angry with a perfect and righteous and holy anger. And then we see men getting sinfully angry, trying to justify their anger as right and good. James contrasts these two kinds of anger – James. 1:19-20.

James corrects here our sinful confusion. When we are heated, we become blinded by the delusion that what we are after is justice. And there are two parts to this delusion. First, we tell ourselves that a terrible injustice has been committed and that is what has provoked our anger. And second, that our anger, the heat of our outrage, is itself the solution to the problem.

Dealing with Anger

So how do we deal with the anger that rages in our hearts? First, we have to understand the difference between the anger of God and the anger of men. Rom. 12:17-19. Vengeance is God’s. In other words, anger does not belong to us. When anger creeps up on you, it does so by making a case that you have a right to feel this way, that your outrage is just. Dealing with anger begins with refuting this. You don’t have a right to wrath. You too are a sinner, in need of forgiveness. Get this perspective and let go of the anger. “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes. 5:9). Through salvation we are saved not only from the wrath of God, but we are also delivered from our own sinful wrath.

Application

If you have a problem with wrath, what do you do?

1. Identify it, and stop justifying it. If you can’t let go of the “demands of justice and righteousness” then you need to step back and honestly assess what the demands of justice and righteousness actually are in your own case. Do you deserve the wrath of God? Are you going to be the unrighteous servant who’s choking the debt out of his fellow servant?

2. Once you’ve identified it, confess it. Let go of it. Name it to God, and then name it to everyone else that saw it. The confession should be as public as the sin.

3. Now that you’re ready to be done sulking under the gourd tree, go into the party. And if you recoil at the thought of this, then go back to step one again and keep doing this until you are ready to go into the party. God didn’t appoint you to wrath, he appointed you to salvation.

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