Our Father Who is in Heaven

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Call to Worship — Isaiah 61:1-2, 11
• Hymn — Blow Ye the Trumpet, Blow
• Prayer of Invocation
• Corporate Prayer of Confession
• Assurance of Pardon — Ephesians 1:7
• Scripture Reading — Luke 7:11-17
• Hymn — Jesus, Strong and Kind
• Pastoral Prayer (concluding with the Lord's Prayer)
• Offering
• Hymn — This Is My Father's World
• Sermon
• Hymn — Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise
• Benediction
• Gloria Patri

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Sermon Title: Our Father Who is in Heaven

Scripture: Romans 8:12-17

I. We Pray "Our Father in Heaven" as Image-Bearing Children

A. Image-bearing and sonship are bound together throughout Scripture

1. Adam, created in God's image, is called "son of God" in Luke 3:38
2. The firstborn son theme runs throughout Scripture — the firstborn son is the heir of all the father possesses

B. In Genesis 1:26, God grants Adam dominion over all creation as his image-bearing son

1. "All that is mine is yours" — the father gives the son his inheritance
2. Compare John 16:15 and Matthew 11:27: "All that the Father has is mine"

C. Adam, like Esau, forfeits the birthright — not for soup, but for a piece of fruit

1. The fall forfeits not only Adam's individual inheritance but that of all his posterity
2. Genesis 5 — the genealogy of death: "and he died… and he died…"
3. The fall of the image-bearer means forfeiting the right to call God Father and the right to the inheritance

D. Christ restores the image and the inheritance as the Last Adam

1. Colossians 1:15-16 — Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation; all things were made through him and for him
2. Through his obedience unto death, he reclaims dominion over all creation
3. Matthew 5:5 — "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" — not radical or new, but the original intent restored
4. In the Lord's Prayer, Christ invites us as fellow heirs of the kingdom to call God Father — not as groveling slaves seeking pennies, but as heirs of all heaven and earth in and through the Son

II. We Pray "Our Father in Heaven" as Adopted Children

A. The Spirit's role: Romans 8:15-16 — by the Spirit we cry "Abba, Father"; the Spirit bears witness that we are children of God

1. The Spirit takes those who were slaves of unrighteousness in Adam and confirms to their hearts that in and through the righteous Son they are now liberated sons of God

B. The Spirit confirms sonship — illustrated in Jesus' baptism (Mark 1)

1. The Father's voice confirms the Son's identity: "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased"
2. This is not adoptionism — Jesus is the eternal Son made man, born of the Virgin, conceived by the Spirit
3. The Father confirms the Son's identity by the Spirit before the Spirit drives him into the wilderness to face temptation
4. Satan attacks Jesus' sonship — "If you are the Son of God…" — echoing the serpent's attack on Adam in the garden
5. Christ, sustained by the Spirit's witness of his sonship, succeeds where Adam failed

C. This same Spirit is now given to us, so that we too may cry "Abba, Father"

1. Sunday worship is a "way station for the soul" — the Spirit confirms to our hearts who we are in Christ so we can go out in the power of his sonship

D. True adoption is more than reciting the Lord's Prayer — it is intimate, relational knowledge (Hebrew: yada)

1. 1 Corinthians 2:11 — no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God, who is given to his people
2. Distinction between general revelation (the "book of nature") and special revelation (Scripture)
3. Illustration: an art expert knows the artist's work from a distance; special revelation is sitting down with the artist himself — but Christ, the Son, was there with the Father and tells us the Father's whole mind
4. Christ invites us into the eternal relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit — to know, love, obey, serve, and rejoice in the Father as adopted children

III. We Pray "Our Father in Heaven" as Glorified Children

A. The seventh day of creation points to a royal, eternal Sabbath rest

1. Unlike the first six days, the seventh day has no "evening and morning" — it is open-ended
2. God's rest is a royal resting — a king enthroned, delighting in his dominion (Isaiah 66:1)
3. Adam, through obedience, was meant to enter into this eternal Sabbath rest with the Father

B. Christ, the image-bearing Son, achieves what Adam failed to do

1. Hebrews 1:3-4 — after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; he has inherited a name more excellent than the angels
2. The Son enters the eternal Sabbath rest through obedience unto death, beholding the glory of the new creation

C. In Christ, we are raised to our proper place — above the angels

1. 1 Corinthians 6:3 — "Do you not know that you will judge angels?"
2. We will not judge angels because we become divine (contra Eastern Orthodox deification), but because we will have become fully human — what man was always meant to be
3. God became man, not an angel, to restore man — the image-bearer, the apple of God's eye — to his proper glory

D. Romans 8:29-30 — predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son, the firstborn among many brothers; called, justified, glorified

1. We call God Father through the restored image of the Son, by the Spirit of the Son, bound for the glory of the Son made man
2. We come to God in prayer — in private and in public — as children of the Father, in and through the Son, by the Holy Spirit