Is God Your Father?

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Hymn — Come, We That Love the Lord
• Call to Worship — Psalm 149
• Hymn — Come, We That Love the Lord
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — Micah 7:18-19
• Profession of Faith / Reception of Communing Member (Joe Marro)
• Prayer
• Hymn — Father, I Adore You
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — The Lord's Prayer
• Scripture Reading — John 8:47-59
• Sermon
• Prayer
• Hymn — The God of Abraham Praise
• Benediction
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: Is God Your Father?

Scripture: John 8:48-59

I. Introduction: The Doctrine of Adoption

A. The passage as a whole concerns adopted children and their marks

• The exchange between Jesus and the Jews in John 8:48-59 is fundamentally a debate about who is a true son of God
• Those who believe in Jesus at the start (John 8:30-31) end by attempting to stone him, divided by the doctrine of Christ's divinity

B. The doctrine of adoption has been underemphasized in church history

• Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 34: Adoption is an act of God's free grace whereby we are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God
• Though adoption is entirely God's free monergistic grace, there are visible fruits and evidences that mark a true child of God

C. Central question: How can you know that God is your Father?

1. When you honor the Son who honors the Father
2. When you obey the word of the Son as he obeys the word of his Father
3. When you rejoice in the life of the Son who shares in the life of his Father

II. Adopted Children Honor the Son as He Honors the Father

A. The Jews charge Jesus with being a Samaritan and having a demon (John 8:48)

• The Samaritans were mixed-heritage descendants of the northern kingdom of Israel who intermarried with Gentiles after the Assyrian conquest
• They held only to the Pentateuch and claimed to be the true offspring of Abraham
• Accusing Jesus of siding with Samaritans was equivalent to accusing him of being satanic

B. Jesus responds: "I honor my Father and you dishonor me" (John 8:49-50)

• Jesus presents himself as the perfect fifth-commandment man — kavod (honor/glory/weightiness) given fully to the Father
• The Father in turn glorifies and honors the Son
• To dishonor the Son is to dishonor the Father; to honor the Son is to honor the Father

C. Application: There is nothing more distasteful to the Father than disrespect for his Son, and nothing more attractive than giving solemn weight and glory to the Son

III. Adopted Children Obey the Word of the Son as He Obeys the Word of the Father

A. Those not born of God cannot hear the words of God (John 8:47)

• This is regeneration language — only those born from above (cf. John 3) can hear and receive the Son's word

B. Jesus knows the Father and keeps his word (John 8:55)

• The Father's word now comes through the obedient Son, who is greater than all previous spokesmen (prophets, Abraham)

C. The promise: "If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death" (John 8:51)

1. Primarily concerns spiritual death, but physical death underlies it as well
2. Disobedient Adam → immediate spiritual death → eventual physical death (Genesis 3)
3. Obedient Son → immediate spiritual life → eventual future physical life (resurrection)
4. The double amen ("truly, truly") signifies that eternal life is firmly fixed for those who receive the Son's word

• Paul speaks of death as "sleep" and of dying as going to be with Christ (Philippians 1:21-23)

D. Application: The Son comes as our representative and declares the Father's word of freedom — "Daddy says we can"

IV. Adopted Children Rejoice in the Life of the Son as He Shares in the Life of the Father

A. The Jews' accusation that Jesus is greater than Abraham exposes their unbelief (John 8:52-53)

• Unbelief is a contentment with the miseries of this world; a failure to rejoice in the life of the Son
• C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory: "We are far too easily pleased"

B. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day — he saw it and was glad (John 8:56)

• Galatians 3:8 — the gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham
• Genesis 15:6 — Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness
• Genesis 15 — God puts Abraham to sleep and passes through the covenant animals as a smoking fire pot and flaming torch (the Great I AM taking the covenant curse upon himself)

C. The setting: the Feast of Tabernacles and the imagery of light

1. Pillars of fire and torches illuminated Jerusalem, commemorating Yahweh as the pillar of fire in the Exodus
2. The Great I AM — the pillar of fire — appears first to Abraham in Genesis 15, foreshadowing the incarnate Christ
3. Christ is the pillar of fire incarnate, cursed at the cross for our covenant-breaking

D. "Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58)

• The ego eimi construction identifies Jesus with Yahweh of Exodus 3 — "I AM WHO I AM"
• Used earlier in John 8:24 and John 8:28 but reaches its fullest declaration here
• The Jews understand the claim perfectly and attempt to stone him for blasphemy

E. Application: Through Christ's death and resurrection, the light of the Son draws the offspring of Abraham from the ends of the earth into the life shared by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit