Suffered and Crucified

Suffered and Crucified

Twentieth after Trinity

Collect: O almighty and most merciful God, of thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech thee, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things which thou commandest; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Text: I believe in Jesus Christ...who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified.

There is no symbol more associated with Christianity than the cross. There is a cross on the outside front wall of our church and one over the Communion Table. Bishops and priests wear crosses. You may be wearing a cross necklace or a pair of cross earrings. The minister makes the sign of the cross when he pronounces the absolution. Some cross themselves when they receive Communion.

St. Paul wrote, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Why is the cross so central to our faith?

Today we consider, “I believe in Jesus Christ...who...suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified.”

1. What the Creed Says

1.1. Suffered under Pontius Pilate.

The Creed speaks of 5 persons. Three are divine: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Two are ordinary mortal human beings like us: the Virgin Mary and Pontius Pilate. We surely understand Mary’s inclusion in the Creed. She was the mother of our Lord. But why Pontius Pilate?

If it were not for his condemning Christ, Pilate would be at most an obscure historical figure. He was governor of Palestine from A.D. 26 to 36 and not a very good one. Jesus was arrested Thursday evening. The Jewish leaders put him on trial over night. They found him guilty of blasphemy and worthy of death. They lacked the authority to execute to the death penalty, so the next morning they took Jesus to Pilate and asked Pilate to execute him. After interviewing Jesus, Pilate found nothing worthy of the death penalty, but the Jewish leaders persisted. Pilate tried to remove any guilt from himself by symbolically washing his hands. But he wanted to please the Jews so he condemned Jesus death as a threat to the state. Jesus was an innocent man killed for reasons of political expediency.

The importance of naming Pilate in the Creed is that it sets the death of Jesus in history. Mythical stories can begin, “Once upon a time, in a place far away, there lived a handsome prince,” because the story is not dependent on time. You can’t do that with a historical figure like George Washington. That’s why all four Gospel writers say that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. Jesus is a historical person who was condemned by Pilate and was crucified outside Jerusalem on a hill called Golgatha.

The sufferings of Jesus under Pontius Pilate were horrendous. Pilate had him scourged with a whip. Soldiers dressed Jesus in a royal robe of purple, placed a crown of thorns on his head, pulled at his beard, and mocked him saying, “Hail! King of the Jews!” Jesus was forced to carry his own cross until he collapsed under its weight because of the earlier torture. Jesus suffered great pain and humiliation under Pontius Pilate.

1.2. Was Crucified

Jesus was condemned to death by crucifixion, one of the cruelest methods of execution man has ever devised. Death by crucifixion was slow and torturous. It was a public spectacle meant to shame the victim and to deter would-be criminals. In cases of rebellion there were mass executions on busy roads. Crucifixion was not often described by Roman writers, because it was so gruesome and repulsive.

The condemned and flogged criminal was often forced to carry his own cross to the place of execution. At the place of execution, the crossbeam was laid on the ground, the criminal was stripped of his clothes, and forced to lie down on the cross. In our Lord’s case nails were driven through his palms and feet. The executioners then picked up the cross and dropped into a hole dug in the earth.

The victim bled from the wounds inflicted by the whipping and the nails. But he did not die of blood loss. He died from asphyxiation caused by exhaustion. Hanging on the cross made breathing hard work. Over hours breathing became shallower and shallower till at last the victim died.

There are two things we ought to note before we move on:

• There was nothing unique about the form of execution used to put Jesus death. Thousands upon thousands of criminals were put to death in this way throughout the empire. Our Lord was one of many put to death by crucifixion. In the view of the time Jesus was just one more rebel executed on a cross.
• It is remarkable that Christians use the cross as the symbol of their faith. Who would put gallows over the holy Table? Which of you ladies would wear a gold electric chair around your neck? What bishop or priest would wear on his chest an axe and chopping block used to lop off heads? Why do we sing, “In the cross of Christ I glory,” when it was an instrument of execution despised by Jews, Greeks, and Romans?

2. What the Cross Means

The fact that Jesus was crucified does not make his sufferings unique. You have to know what God was doing at the cross.

On February 23, 1945, Marines captured Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima. At the top they found a piece of pipe and raised an American flag. As a fact, it is one of many American flags raised all over the world by Americans. What sets that flag raising apart from others? Planting the flag was symbol of the triumph of the Marines on Iwo Jima and has stood for 61 years as symbol of the fighting spirit of the Marines. It is inscribed in the nation’s memory in a sculpture at the Marine Corps Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The question we have to ask about the cross of Christ is: What makes it unique? What was happening when Jesus was crucified?

If you ask many Christians the meaning of Christ’s death, they are likely to say, “To show us that God loves us.” Taken by itself that statement is not true. What would you think of a husband who demonstrated his love for his wife by stepping in front of a speeding truck, or a mother proving her love for her child by having a gang member shoot her. Those acts would be meaningless and futile expressions of love. But, what if a husband pushed his wife out of the path of the truck and was killed in the process? What if a mother shielded her child from the gang member and was killed? Those are demonstrations of love.

But there is another element. A wife is worthy of her husband’s love and a child worthy of a mother’s love. But would you out of love die for a person who is hostile toward you? A person who has done his best to harm you? A person who is your enemy? A person whose actions deserve your righteous anger?

This is the kind of love God has for us in Christ - purposeful love to redeem us, undeserved love to save his enemies from eternal death. St. Paul wrote:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life (Romans 5:6-10).

If you want eternal salvation, there are three things you have to come to terms with:

• We are sinners who are naturally hostile toward God and have rebelled against him.
• God hates sin and is determined to bring sinners to justice. He is rightly and justly angry with us. If he were not, he would not be a good and holy God.
• Christ took responsibility for our sins. On the cross he became the object of God’s anger with us and paid the penalty that our sins deserve, so that we may be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. The Prayer Book says what Christ did was “to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption; (and to make) there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.”

Do you acknowledge you are a sinner? Do you believe you are by nature under God’s condemnation? Do you trust in Christ who died for you so that you may be forgiven and given eternal life?

When we come to this holy Table, we come always as sinners trusting in the Savior’s cross. Let us come with the words of our first hymn in our hearts:

              For me, kind Jesus, was thy incarnation,

              thy mortal sorrow, and thy life's oblation;

thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,

              for my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,

              I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee,

              think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,

              not my deserving.

Conceived by the Spirit, Born of the Virgin

Conceived by the Spirit, Born of the Virgin

Nineteenth after Trinity

Collect: O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Text: I believe in Jesus Christ...who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin Mary.

Do you believe in Santa Claus? Not a myth or fable or but a real jolly guy with a white beard and red suit you could find if you traveled to the North Pole.

For some if you believe in the Virgin Birth you might as well believe in Santa Claus. It’s a Christian fable borrowed from the Greek religions or a myth that’s not literal but points to a spiritual reality.

But for the writers of the Creed and Christians who confess it sincerely the virgin birth is  historical event. A virgin conceived and gave birth to  a Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

1. The Scriptures

There are two places in Scripture that record the fact of the Virgin Birth.

1.1. Luke 1: 26-38

St. Luke wrote his Gospel initially for prominent Roman named Theophilus who had received some instruction in the Christian faith. St. Luke makes it clear that he is serious about writing history:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,  it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught (Luke 1:1-4).

When Luke wrote about the Virgin Birth, he believed he was writing about a fact of history.  

Luke records the account of a young woman named Mary, who was probably about 15 years old and lived in the town of Nazareth. She was betrothed to a man named Joseph. The angel Gabriel appeared to her with a startling announcement: “Behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” Mary knew the facts of life, so she asked, “How can this be since I am a virgin?” Mary surely took what the angel announced as literal. Though she was a virgin, she was going to have a baby. She knew that she was having no sexual relations with her fiance or any other man. How could she get pregnant?

Gabriel answered her question: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”  This is the explanation of how she will get pregnant. It is by the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High God that Mary, a virgin, will conceive a child without intercourse.  What we traditionally call the Virgin Birth is more accurately the Virgin Conception. The birth of Jesus was entirely natural. It was his conception that was miraculous. Because of his supernatural conception, the child will be the holy Son of God.

Mary’s response expressed her faith: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Whatever the Lord’s will she is at the Lord’s disposal.

1.2. Matthew 1:18-25.

St. Matthew records the reality of of the virgin birth from her fiance Joseph’s perspective. Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant. He also knew the facts of life. He knew he was not the father, but he knew somebody else had to be. In those days betrothals were serious matters, established publicly and legally. Joseph was not prepared to  go through with the marriage, but he was a good man, who did not want to humiliate Mary publicly, so he decided to end the betrothal privately.

But, while he was thinking about all these things, an angel came to him in a dream and said: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”  

Matthew explains: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Immanuel.’ “

Joseph’s response expressed his faith: “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,  but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.” Joseph accepted the angel’s word and obeyed the Lord’s command. That there might be no doubt that the conception of Jesus was a miraculous event, Mary and Joseph had no relations till after the birth of Jesus.

2. Significance

Two Gospel writers, Luke and Matthew, record the fact of the supernatural virgin birth or virgin conception. But, why the virgin birth? What is it about? What is it’s significance?

2.1. Incarnation. The virgin birth is about how God chose to enter human life, how God became man, so that the Son born to Mary was fully God and fully man. Because of the role of the Holy Spirit he was the Son of God, who did not cease to be God when he became man. Because  an ovum of Mary developed in Mary’s womb, he was man. Jesus was one Person who was fully God and fully man.

As a man, he was a baby who nursed at his mother’s breast, who needed his diapers changed, who cried when he was unhappy and needed his mother’s attention. He was truly and fully human.

At the same time, by becoming man, he did not cease to be God. He was still the One through whom God created the world and who holds the universe together so that it does not disintegrate. He did not put aside or diminish his Godhood by becoming man.

Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus is fully God and fully man.

Lo, within a manger lies

He who built the starry skies.

2.2 Implications

There are two important implications of the Virgin Birth.

2.2.1. Divine Intervention

The Virgin Birth is perhaps the most striking instance of divine intervention to accomplish what was man could not.

• The children of Israel were caught between the Red Sea in front and the pursuing Egyptians in the rear. Then God parted the Red Sea, and Israel crossed over to safety while the Egyptians were drowned in the Sea.

• There are several examples in the Scriptures of divine intervention in cases of birth.
• Abraham and Sarah were childless. Abraham was on old man, and Sarah was post-menopausal. But God promised them a son, and at the time God had chosen God intervened so that Abraham and Sarah conceived a son named Isaac.
• Hannah was loved by her husband, but she felt a great emptiness because she had no child. She pleaded with the Lord for a son. The Lord granted her request, and she conceived and bore a son named Samuel.

In the cases of Sarah and Hannah, God intervened so that they both conceived children with their husbands. In Mary’s case God intervened and worked apart from the normal process. There is no biological or natural explanation. The Holy Spirit caused Mary’s ovum to develop in her womb so she conceived a son without the aid of a man.

The necessity of God’s intervention for the Virgin Conception to occur is true of the whole of the salvation of human beings. By human initiative, wisdom, and  power there is no way that salvation could have been accomplished. One of the most persistent human illusions is self-salvation - that we can work out way up to God, that there is something we can do by human ability to save ourselves. The Virgin Birth says, No. You cannot save yourself. Salvation is wholly the Lord’s work for us.

2.2.2. Divine Protection

In order to be our Savior Jesus had to have no need of salvation himself. He had to be one of us, fully human, but without sin. But how could that be?

Nothing could be clearer by observation than that every human being without exception is a sinner. Why are all sinners? Original sin. Adam was created sinless. But when he rebelled against God he not only sinned; he became a sinner. His nature changed so that he was now inclined to sin. Adam’s sin has consequences for all human beings. We all have inherited from Adam a nature inclined to sin. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners by nature.

How was Jesus kept from being a sinner? It was by the intervention of the Holy Spirit who disrupted the normal transmission of sin. There are two things we need to emphasize. The Virgin Birth was not necessary because there is something that is evil about the normal sexual relations between man and woman. Nor was the Virgin Birth necessary because the sinful nature is transmitted by the male alone. No, women are sinners by nature as much as man. Mary was a sinner as much as Joseph. The reason Jesus was sinless is because the Holy Spirit protected Jesus from the transmission of sin. God could have done that in some other way, but he chose to do it by the Virgin Birth. God gave us his sinless Son that he might offer himself as the sacrifice for sins so that we who are by nature children of wrath might become the children of God.

When you come to this Table, come in the only way you may or can - by faith in virgin born Son of Mary, Jesus Christ. Believe that the sinless Jesus bore your sins on the cross to pay for your sins and reconcile you to God. By faith eat his body given for you and drink his blood shed for you and live.  

Jesus Christ, His Son. Our Lord

  Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord

Eighteenth after Trinity

Collect: Lord, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Text: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

The Apostles’ Creed consists of 112 words in English. Of those 112 words 12 are devoted to God the Father, 6 to God the Holy Spirit, and 73 to God the Son? Why is that? It is not because the Son is more important than the Father or the Holy Spirit.

More words are devoted to the Son for two reasons. The first reason is that Christianity focuses on a person - the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He is final revelation of God. The writer of Hebrews tells us that in former times God spoke in different ways through the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken through his Son. The second reason is that Jesus Christ accomplished the salvation that was planned by the Father and is applied by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Peter proclaimed that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus Christ.

That is why the Creed, following the Bible, focuses on Christ.

1. Jesus Christ

A great many people believe “Jesus” is the first name and “Christ” the last name of Jesus Christ.

1.1 Jesus

His given name is Jesus. It is not uncommon for people to think that no one has ever had the name “Jesus” except our Lord Jesus Christ. But the name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. The best known Joshua of the Old Testament was the man who assisted Moses and then succeeded Moses when Moses died. He led the children of Israel across the Jordan River to the Promised Land and then led them as they conquered and took possession of the land.

The story of the Joshua we call Jesus is set first century Palestine. He was a man born to Mary in Bethlehem and who lived during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberias Caesar. He grew up in Nazareth and was trained to be a carpenter. Then at the age of 30 he began a three year ministry as a traveling rabbi. He was put to death by the the Roman governor, Pilate, around A.D. 30. He is not a legend or mythical figure. He is man whose life is set in history.

The reason he was named Jesus is that the Angel Gabriel told his mother, “You will...bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” Later an angel told Joseph, Mary’s fiancee, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” The angel gave the reason Mary’s son should be called Jesus: “for he will save his people from their sins.” The name Joshua or Jesus means, “The Lord saves” or “The Lord delivers.” Jesus in the One who will accomplish the deliverance the human race needs - salvation from condemning power of sins.

1.2. Christ

Christ is not the second name of Jesus. People of Jesus’s time did not have second names. Sometimes they were distinguished by the town they lived in or by their father. The Apostle Philip called our Lord, “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

The word “Christ” is not a name but a title. The man who may eventually be the King of England is Charles Prince of Wales. His name is Charles; his title is Prince of Wales. Jesus is the Christ, which is the Greek form of the Old Testament title Messiah. Christ or Messiah means “Anointed One.” When the Lord revealed to the prophet Samuel that David would be the next King of Israel, the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him” and “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him.” The Lord chose David, and his choice of David was symbolized by the pouring of oil over his head.

Our Lord Jesus is the Christ, the Lord’s anointed One, the One the Lord chose and appointed to the the Messiah, the One who would save his people from their enemies and rule over them as their King. The Jewish expectation was that the Messiah would defeat the Romans, drive them out of the land, sit on a throne in Jerusalem, and restore to Israel its military, national, and economic prosperity. That they did not understand is that Jesus the Christ came to do something much bigger than that - to defeat Satan, sin, and death, to gather people of every ethnic and national group into his kingdom, and to reign forever over his kingdom of salvation.

2. Only Son

Sometimes we hear that there are three monotheistic religions - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. People say that despite their differences all three religions have the same God.

However, Christianity is set apart from both Islam and Judaism because Christians worship Jesus as God. In the Old Testament the phrase to “call on the name of the Lord” means to worship the Lord. The Old Testament insists time and again that there is only one true and living God. God himself forbids the worship of anyone else: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” But then St. Paul writing to the Corinthian church greeted them along “with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Christians call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They worship him. Why?

The reason Christians worship Christ is because he is the Son of God. In one of his conflicts with the Jews, Jesus said to them, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). He did not say, “I and the Father are one person,” but “I and and the Father are one thing.” He meant, “I and the Father have one nature - the nature of God.” The Father is God and possesses all the qualities, powers, and prerogatives of God. The Son, also, is God and has all the qualities, powers, and pregrogratives of God. The Jews understood what Jesus was claiming. They took his words as blasphemy and picked up stones to stone him to death. When Jesus asked if they were stoning him for one of the many good works he had done, they responded, “It is not for a good work we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, since you being a man, make yourself God” (10:30).

When we confess that Jesus Christ is God’s only Son, we say with St. Paul that he is “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

3. Our Lord

St. Paul wrote, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” It is likely that “Jesus is Lord” is an early Christian confession of faith.

What does it mean to call Jesus Lord?

If you read the Old Testament in English you cannot miss how often God is called Lord. The Hebrew word for Lord is “adonai”  means, of course, a master or ruler which could refer to a human ruler or to God.  God is Lord for he is the ruler of the universe and everything in it. He is the Lord of his people, and they are called to submit to him and obey him.

But that Hebrew word Adonai or Lord was used in another way also. The most personal and intimate word for God in the Old Testament was Yahweh or Jehovah. Yahweh and Jehovah are just two different pronunciations of the same letters. God himself proclaimed the meaning of his special name: “ ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…’ “ (Exodus 34:6.7). This name was so special and holy that the Jewish people hesitated to say it. So, for instance, when a reader came to this special name instead of saying “Yahweh” he would say “Adonai.”

So the word “Lord” had two meanings. It could mean Ruler which could also refer to a human or it could mean Yahweh which referred only to the one true living God. When the writers of the New Testament called Jesus “Lord” they were deliberately giving him the most personal and holy name of God.

On the Day of Pentecost, when St. Peter preached to the Jewish crowd he said,  “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” God himself declared that Jesus is both God and Messiah. The Apostle Paul wrote of Jesus Christ, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). Jesus has the name above all other names - Lord - and eventually all will confess that he is Lord.

He is our Lord, the Lord of the church. We acknowledge him as God the Son. He is our Savior and Lord. We willingly and happily bow the knee to him.

There is only one question. Is Jesus your Savior and Lord?

I Believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth

  Almighty Father and Creator

Seventeenth after Trinity

Collect: Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always both precede and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Text: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

The two most important questions we need to ask are: (1) Who is God? (2) Who am I?*

The article of the Creed we consider today begins to answer those questions: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” This article tells us three things about God: (1) He is Father. (2) He is Almighty. (3) He is Creator. They tell us about ourselves.

1. God is the Father.

1.1 God’s only-begotten Son. I have five sons. God has one Son. But God’s Fatherhood of his Son is different from my fatherhood of my sons. God is the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and Christ is the only-begotten and eternal Son of the Father. When we say that the Father is the Father of his Son, we do not mean that there is a beginning to the Son’s existence.

When we say the Son is begotten by the Father, we mean that, as a son has the nature of his father, so God’s Son has the nature of his Father. When we say he is the eternally begotten Son, we mean he was Son with the Father’s nature in eternity. When we say he is the only begotten Son, we mean the Father has only one Son who is just like him because the Son shares his Deity.

In eternity the Father and Son exist is the closest possible unity, fellowship, and love. We might say that they “enjoy each other’s company” as a Father and Son who are one in nature, who fully understand each other, and who live in perfect harmony.

Not only did the Father and Son love each other in eternity. They also loved one another when the Son came to earth as the Messiah. The Son’s joy as the Messiah was to please the Father. The Father delighted fully in the Son, the Messiah, saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The Son addressed the Father as “Abba.” Abba is close in meaning to “Dad” or “Daddy.” It expressed the intimacy and love between the Father in heaven and the Son on earth.

God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1.2. God’s adopted sons. God the Father has other children, too. We are sons and daughters of God.

We need to note two things about God’s children:

1.2.1.There is a difference between God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and God’s other children. Christ is God’s unique Son, because he shares the Divine nature. He is God’s “natural Son.” God’s other children are adopted children. We are not like the eternal Son, but are adopted into God’s family. God is our adoptive Father.

1.2.2. Then not all human beings are God’s children. It used to be popular to talk about “the universal fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man.” But God is not the Father of all except in the sense that he is the Creator of all human life. But the Bible means more by God’s Fatherhood than that the God made us; Fatherhood means the love, intimacy, delight of God the Father in his children. Only those who trust in Christ as Savior are adopted by God as his children.

1.2.3. God takes us into his family. We have a Father in heaven who is not embarrassed to have us as children. He loves us, watches over us, cares for us, provides for us. Our Father wants us to address him as Jesus did - to call “Abba.” He is our “Dad in heaven.” We treat him with respect as our holy Father, but with the confidence that comes from knowing he accepts and loves us.

Not everyone has a good relationship with or memories of their earthly father. Some fathers abandon their children. Some are cold and distant. Some are harsh and condemning. Some are mean and abusive. Bad experiences can create psychological barriers to getting the comfort from knowing God as our Father. But those who have had bad experiences with earthly fathers need to remember that God is not like them. God is the perfect Father, everything a father should be. He is the Father you can trust, confide in, and count on.

In Jesus Christ, God is your wise and loving heavenly Father.

2. God is Almighty.

2.1. Kids used to brag, “My dad’s stronger than your dad.” The Christian can say, “My Father is Almighty.” “Almighty” is the combination of two words -  “all” and “mighty.” God has all might, all power, all strength. The God of the Bible, our Father, is “all-mighty” over all things.

2.2. What can God do? As a boy I learned a Catechism. It asked the question, Can God do all things? God can do all his holy will.

Is there anything God cannot do? In one sense, yes, in another, no. Is there anything that God lacks the power to do, if he wills to do it? No. He is almighty. But is there anything God cannot will to do? The answer is, Yes. God has a perfect moral nature, and he cannot will anything contrary to his perfect nature. The Bible tells us specifically that God cannot lie. He is the God of truth. The God of truth cannot cannot lie.

There is great comfort in knowing that. God is not like an immoral dictator who does whatever he wants because he can. He is not guided by a moral character or ethical code. He has a murderous spirit, so he murders people. He has a thieving spirit, so he robs his people. He makes promises and breaks them, because he is a liar. He treats people like toys he plays with for fun.

But God the Father is not at all like that. He is good, holy, righteous, just, truthful, loving, faithful, kind, and merciful. He cannot act contrary to who he is. Be assured that whatever you are going through it is not because your Father is mean or torturing you. Because of God’s character, you, as Christian believer, can count on him and rely on his promises.

But can God do what he wills to do? Absolutely yes. Can the devil keep God from doing his will? No. Can man keep God from doing his will? No. “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth…” (Ps. 135:6, ESV). Our heavenly Father can do whatever he will because he is Almighty. Nothing outside himself can restrain and control him. He wills only what is consistent with his nature and character. But he has the power to do all that he wills. In God perfect character and unlimited power are joined.

Your Father the Almighty. Rejoice and take comfort in that reality.

3. God is the Creator.

3.1 Creator of all things.

I learned two other things from that Child’s Catechism: “Who made you? God. What else did God make? God made all things.” The first verse in the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” which means, “God created everything” or, as the Nicene Creed puts it, “of all things visible and invisible.”

If you came over to the Rectory, I might point out some projects - mulched flower beds, a driveway no one knew existed now dug down to the hard surface, landscape timbers on either side of the driveway, the newly painted porch. You might ask, “Who did did all these things?” and I would answer, “Susan did it all.”

In Genesis 1 Moses takes us on our tour of the world - light and darkness, the sun, moon, and stars, the seas and land, the fish and birds, all the land animals, and then the greatest and most complex thing God made - human beings. Pagans had various gods who made different things. But the Bible says, “The Lord God made them all.”

God began with nothing. Then he created the stuff of creation. Then he shaped it all to be just what he wanted it to be. Then he pronounced it all good.

You cannot begin to understand the universe or yourself till you know that God created everything.

3.2. Creator of man. God made man in his own image - both male and female.

You are the greatest thing God made. Of all the things created you are most like God. You are the pinnacle of his creation. The rest of creation is like a painting that reflects the artist. Human beings are like a child that looks and acts like the parent. We are the greatest thing God made, but we are not God. We cannot forget that God made us. We owe our existence to us. He is King over us. He is infinitely greater than we. He is Uncreated and our Creator.

God gave us the creation to rule over, to manage for him. Sometimes people reverse that and act as though humans are supposed to be subject to creation - that nature is good, and man is bad for nature, that man should submit to the creation. That reverses God’s plan. Man is in charge of creation.

But we are not the owners of creation. We must not forget that God is the ultimate Owner and Ruler. We are God’s stewards or managers who answer to him. The creation is not man’s lord. Man uses the creation and imposes his will on it. Nature is not lord. But God made us not to destroy the natural world, but to be good stewards and keepers of it.  This is our Father’s world.

God is Father, Almighty, the Creator of everything. He is your Father. You are under his Almighty care. You live in a world God made.

* “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is, to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves” (John Calvin, Institutes, vol. I, p. 35, Battles translation).



















































































































































































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