Jesus and the Father

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.320 This morning to glaciers, chapter four, to hear God's word. Glaciers for 2 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:30.500 versus four through seven, glaciers for verse four. But when the fullness of 3 00:00:30.579 --> 00:00:35.539 time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, 4 00:00:36.210 --> 00:00:39.729 born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so 5 00:00:39.850 --> 00:00:44.250 that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God 6 00:00:44.329 --> 00:00:47.850 has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba father. 7 00:00:48.570 --> 00:00:51.840 So are you know? So you are no longer a slave but a son, 8 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:57.359 and if a son, then an heir through God. Amen, may 9 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:10.709 bless his word to us. He may be seated. Well, I mentioned 10 00:01:10.829 --> 00:01:15.430 this morning, we are, over the next two weeks, or this week 11 00:01:15.430 --> 00:01:22.579 and next week, looking at these four clauses, these four phrases in glacians 12 00:01:22.659 --> 00:01:27.180 for verse for the fullness of Time, when the fullness of time had come. 13 00:01:27.739 --> 00:01:33.849 That's number one, which we considered this morning. Number two we consider 14 00:01:33.969 --> 00:01:37.290 this evening. God sent forth his son and the next week born of a 15 00:01:37.329 --> 00:01:44.609 woman and then born under the law. These phrases help us to understand Jesus's 16 00:01:44.689 --> 00:01:49.799 mission. They give us a backstory, in a way, the origin of 17 00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:53.920 our hero, of our victor. This beginning helps us to understand who he 18 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:59.480 is and why he came. And today, as I mentioned, or tonight, 19 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:06.590 focus on this second phrase, God sent forth his son. Now, 20 00:02:06.709 --> 00:02:12.150 as I've mentioned to you many times before and various settings, one of the 21 00:02:12.189 --> 00:02:19.939 questions I'm always asking myself as I read the Scriptures is do I reflect in 22 00:02:20.060 --> 00:02:23.300 my own thinking and my own life the way that the scriptures themselves speak? 23 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:30.770 In my theology and the categories that are in my head? Am I reflecting? 24 00:02:30.849 --> 00:02:35.969 Do I manifest in myself the things that are there in the word? 25 00:02:37.569 --> 00:02:43.169 And I was challenged again, as I often am this when preparing for this 26 00:02:43.330 --> 00:02:50.199 sermon, in this way, just a little bit. The word says that 27 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:54.719 God sent forth his son, and I noticed, when thinking about this phrase, 28 00:02:54.759 --> 00:03:00.110 how often that I speak of the coming of Jesus. And that's not 29 00:03:00.310 --> 00:03:04.030 exactly the way that this is put, is it? This is more about 30 00:03:04.150 --> 00:03:07.229 the sending of Jesus in a way. Now, these two ideas, the 31 00:03:07.310 --> 00:03:13.780 coming of Jesus or God sending his son, are not opposed at all to 32 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:19.620 one another. They speak of exactly the same thing. This language of the 33 00:03:19.780 --> 00:03:23.060 coming of Jesus is, of course, based on scripture. It's a scriptural 34 00:03:23.099 --> 00:03:27.210 truth. We sang this morning. Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel, 35 00:03:28.409 --> 00:03:31.689 Zachariah, Zachari and I nine. For example, we have this prophecy. 36 00:03:32.330 --> 00:03:37.449 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion, Shout Aloud, oh daughter of Jerusalem, 37 00:03:37.569 --> 00:03:44.120 behold, your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation. Is 38 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:47.520 he humbled and mounted on a donkey, on a cult the full of a 39 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:53.800 donkey. So it is most certainly a good and true thing to speak about 40 00:03:53.800 --> 00:04:00.110 the coming of Jesus, but Paul does approach this from a different angle and 41 00:04:00.310 --> 00:04:03.430 speaking about the birth of the sun, the incarnation of the Lord, he 42 00:04:03.550 --> 00:04:08.909 speaks of it in terms of his relationship to the father and makes it clear 43 00:04:09.069 --> 00:04:19.180 that his coming is also ascending. So here a sending, sending. So 44 00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:23.779 here again with the scripture to say when the fullness of time had come, 45 00:04:24.569 --> 00:04:29.449 God sent forth his son. So the question I want to ask tonight and 46 00:04:29.529 --> 00:04:32.410 reflect on with you, is what exactly does this mean and why does it 47 00:04:32.529 --> 00:04:39.279 matter? First, what does it mean? What does it mean that God 48 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:44.079 sent forth his son? Well, it means a lot of things, which 49 00:04:44.120 --> 00:04:46.639 I am not going to be able to cover all, but I do want 50 00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:51.870 to think of one or maybe two important things that this means with you tonight. 51 00:04:54.829 --> 00:04:58.230 One thing that it mean, not means, is that it means that 52 00:04:58.389 --> 00:05:02.389 the mission of Jesus was the mission and the work of God, the father. 53 00:05:03.509 --> 00:05:06.579 This is important for us to remember. Many people would think of do 54 00:05:06.819 --> 00:05:13.379 think of Jesus has just a man, a man who maybe even according to 55 00:05:13.459 --> 00:05:15.980 his own purposes, according to his own plans. I did, yes, 56 00:05:16.139 --> 00:05:23.529 some amazing things, but he was not really from God. The scriptures and 57 00:05:23.810 --> 00:05:30.170 Jesus himself directly contradict this. It is not true. Jesus is mission, 58 00:05:30.329 --> 00:05:35.319 his work in the world was one who was sent from God, and this 59 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:42.079 is a big deal, because it is God whom we have offended. That 60 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:48.839 he sent his own son to save sinners is a very marvelous thing. The 61 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:54.990 fact that God is the one who took initiative to save us is a really 62 00:05:55.110 --> 00:05:58.550 big deal. Have you ever been, for example, hurt by someone, 63 00:05:58.870 --> 00:06:02.629 hurt really bad and in such a way where you didn't do anything wrong, 64 00:06:02.709 --> 00:06:08.819 or maybe what you did was really minimal, and yet they are refusing to 65 00:06:08.899 --> 00:06:13.300 reconcile to you? You're the one who's been harmed, you're the one who's 66 00:06:13.339 --> 00:06:17.300 been hurt, and yet they're staying silent, they're not repenting, they're not 67 00:06:17.339 --> 00:06:24.290 saying sorry, they're not asking for your forgiveness, and then you decide that 68 00:06:24.490 --> 00:06:27.209 you're going to be the first one to go and try to make it right, 69 00:06:28.250 --> 00:06:30.850 the first one to try to reconcile, not apologize, of course, 70 00:06:30.930 --> 00:06:35.839 for something you didn't do, but taking the initiative to draw this one close 71 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:43.240 who has hurt you so badly. That's a hard thing to do. That's 72 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:47.110 something that many of us are, frankly, unwilling to do. But yet 73 00:06:47.230 --> 00:06:53.910 this is exactly what God did, and the Scriptures spreak speak frequently to this 74 00:06:54.110 --> 00:06:58.589 point. Isaiah fifty three six, for example, says all we, like 75 00:06:58.829 --> 00:07:01.860 sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, 76 00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:06.459 and the Lord has an laid on him. That is, Jesus, the 77 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:15.699 iniquity of us all. We went astray and then our punishment was placed on 78 00:07:15.850 --> 00:07:20.290 him. That's his way. This is how God reconciles us to himself. 79 00:07:20.329 --> 00:07:26.810 Or consider first Peter Three eighteen, for Christ also suffered once for sins, 80 00:07:27.209 --> 00:07:32.240 the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being 81 00:07:32.360 --> 00:07:36.360 put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. Or First 82 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:42.480 John for nine. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, 83 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:46.990 that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live 84 00:07:46.110 --> 00:07:51.230 through him, the righteous for the UNRIGHTEOUS, the shepherd for the sheep, 85 00:07:53.069 --> 00:07:58.620 the father for disobedient, unloving children, loving us in such a great way. 86 00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:03.060 First John for ten in this is love, not that we have loved 87 00:08:03.139 --> 00:08:09.139 God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation 88 00:08:09.939 --> 00:08:13.970 for our sins. There's three different verses in row, four different verses in 89 00:08:15.009 --> 00:08:18.250 a row, that all speak of the love of God for sinners in the 90 00:08:18.449 --> 00:08:24.610 sending of the son. This is an amazing thing that God has done. 91 00:08:24.009 --> 00:08:28.279 It is John, as John Puts it, how we even know what love 92 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:33.639 is. This is love. Now we have to be careful to think of 93 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:37.399 this in a biblical way. We don't want to think of the father sending 94 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:43.429 forth the son as the father throwing the son under the bus or, as 95 00:08:43.509 --> 00:08:48.429 other people will sometimes say, cosmic child abuse. Some people accuse God of 96 00:08:48.789 --> 00:08:54.820 loving and quotes loving us in but in such a way that he abuses someone 97 00:08:54.820 --> 00:08:58.860 else to make that happen, and therefore the conclusion is it's not really love, 98 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:05.100 is it? That's the accusation of God or against God. But this 99 00:09:05.340 --> 00:09:11.929 idea wrongly imputes to God our own sinful behaviors. It's not what the scriptures 100 00:09:11.009 --> 00:09:16.490 teach. In fact, when we remember that the father is not divided against 101 00:09:16.490 --> 00:09:22.850 the son, but united with the son in their love for us, our 102 00:09:22.090 --> 00:09:28.440 sense of the depth of the love that he gives should grow. Let me 103 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:33.960 put it this way. When we think about the love that the father has 104 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:39.470 for the son and the father sending that son, his son out of love 105 00:09:39.590 --> 00:09:46.029 for us, it shouldn't lead us to conclusions about an unloving God. Remember 106 00:09:46.990 --> 00:09:50.190 the love that we have for one another, the love that we have for 107 00:09:50.389 --> 00:09:58.740 God, finds its source in God himself. God is love, as John 108 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:07.009 says, we don't love or enjoy love or have a relationship of love except 109 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:11.970 through God, who is love himself. And God, who is love, 110 00:10:13.370 --> 00:10:20.450 is not just love in the son or love in the spirit or just love 111 00:10:20.570 --> 00:10:24.639 in the father. This love, this innerpre interpenetrating love, is between all 112 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:31.159 the persons of the Trinity, fully in God himself, and stay with me 113 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:39.269 here, this love is essential to his divine nature. This love that God 114 00:10:39.429 --> 00:10:43.789 has with himself is held equally and fully, without divisions, between all three 115 00:10:43.990 --> 00:10:50.340 persons of the Trinity. The father is not more loving than the son and 116 00:10:50.460 --> 00:10:54.659 the spirit. The spirit is not more loving than the father and the son, 117 00:10:54.340 --> 00:10:58.700 and the son is not more loving than the spirit and the father. 118 00:10:58.860 --> 00:11:07.409 All three are together as one God love. Love is shared by all three 119 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:15.450 completely and fully, not even divided into thirds, each one fully possessing all 120 00:11:16.289 --> 00:11:24.000 of love, all of in this essential attribute of God. On top of 121 00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:28.879 that, the scriptures also speak of love between the persons of the Trinity. 122 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:35.950 Here Jesus's words and John Thirty Five, the father loves the son and has 123 00:11:35.990 --> 00:11:39.470 given all things into his hand. If I didn't throw the son under the 124 00:11:39.509 --> 00:11:46.190 bus. The father loved the son and has given all things into his hand. 125 00:11:46.179 --> 00:11:50.539 Jesus will say there's nothing that he doesn't have, that hasn't been given 126 00:11:50.580 --> 00:11:56.179 to him by the father. If we are willing, therefore, to say 127 00:11:56.340 --> 00:12:01.179 that Jesus is good, that Jesus is love, then by Jesus is own's 128 00:12:01.220 --> 00:12:03.929 words, we have to say all of that of the father as well. 129 00:12:03.809 --> 00:12:09.250 We can't impute an evil thing to the father, but say something good of 130 00:12:09.330 --> 00:12:13.490 the son when Jesus says the father loves the son and has given all things 131 00:12:13.570 --> 00:12:18.759 into his hand. So we hear in these words and the words of Jesus 132 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:22.879 himself, who is the word of God, of the perfect love that they 133 00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:28.720 have. The son of God has all that he has, including his nature, 134 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:33.070 eternally from the father. What the father has, the son has. 135 00:12:33.149 --> 00:12:37.350 What the Son has, the father has. And how was it given? 136 00:12:37.350 --> 00:12:43.429 What does John say or what does Jesus say? How did all things come 137 00:12:43.669 --> 00:12:48.179 into the hand of the son? I'll read it again. The father loves 138 00:12:48.259 --> 00:12:52.259 the son. So not only does he have all of the love of God 139 00:12:52.379 --> 00:12:54.299 from God himself, but he has it in an action of love. It's 140 00:12:54.340 --> 00:12:56.899 like love on top of love, on top of love. There's a layers 141 00:12:56.940 --> 00:13:03.370 and layers and layers to this. It is impossible, therefore, for there 142 00:13:03.450 --> 00:13:09.850 to be anything but love in the sending of the son. In addition to 143 00:13:11.009 --> 00:13:16.960 this, the love between the father and the son, each eternally before creation, 144 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:22.519 before time, manifests itself in the will of God for the salvation of 145 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:31.029 ungodly people. This, this love that belongs the inside, that we might 146 00:13:31.110 --> 00:13:35.669 say, inside the Trinity, inside of God himself, then manifests itself outside 147 00:13:37.110 --> 00:13:41.059 in the works of God in the world. Again, we know this from 148 00:13:41.059 --> 00:13:46.899 the scriptures. John Seventeen. For this reason, the father loves me, 149 00:13:46.659 --> 00:13:54.659 because I laid down my life that I may take it up again. You 150 00:13:54.740 --> 00:13:58.570 see, it's impossible to say that Jesus was loving in his death for us, 151 00:13:58.730 --> 00:14:01.289 but the father was not in the sending of the son. It's just 152 00:14:01.610 --> 00:14:07.450 the opposite. Here's what Jesus says again and now in John Fifteen nine. 153 00:14:07.090 --> 00:14:13.399 As the father has loved me, so I have loved you, as the 154 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:20.039 father has loved me, so I have loved you. Imagine that. Just 155 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:26.070 reflect and ponder for a moment what Jesus might possibly mean when he says, 156 00:14:26.110 --> 00:14:35.750 as the father loved me, as God is love and loves himself infinitely and 157 00:14:37.029 --> 00:14:46.059 perfectly and eternally. So I have loved you. If we are willing to 158 00:14:46.299 --> 00:14:52.539 accept the love of Jesus and Dying for the ungodly, we must also accept 159 00:14:52.539 --> 00:14:56.370 the love of the father who sent his son to die for the ungodly. 160 00:14:56.009 --> 00:14:58.850 And this acceptance is not a mere okay, well, I guess I have 161 00:14:58.929 --> 00:15:03.610 to say this, but this is our rejoicing, this is our praise. 162 00:15:03.090 --> 00:15:09.960 The father sending the son is an expression of his great and infinite love for 163 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:16.639 us, even as it is for the son so in these various verses, 164 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:20.960 and we could add many, many more, we learn that the work of 165 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:26.230 Christ was not the result of some unloving action from the father. Know, 166 00:15:26.389 --> 00:15:31.429 the work of Christ on the Cross was the result of the perfect love of 167 00:15:31.629 --> 00:15:35.659 God and himself, the perfect, infinite in the eternal love between the persons 168 00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:39.940 of the trinity that, if existed, has existed from all eternity, a 169 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:46.500 love that was expressed in the will of his salvation for us, even ungodly, 170 00:15:46.899 --> 00:15:52.409 rebellious sinners. The coming of Christ, then, as the sending of 171 00:15:52.490 --> 00:15:58.009 the father, reminds us of this deep love into which we are drawn. 172 00:15:58.450 --> 00:16:06.639 We are like drops of love put into an ocean of God's love. We 173 00:16:06.879 --> 00:16:11.080 experience, in the abiding of God's love, something that is inexhaust stable. 174 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:15.559 It will never run out, it will never run dry. There is no 175 00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:22.309 getting to the end of it, or or even close in fact, the 176 00:16:22.470 --> 00:16:26.789 unity, this unity, but in of us and the and the Lord Jesus 177 00:16:26.830 --> 00:16:32.750 speaks of again in John Seventeen, in John Seventeen twenty three, when he 178 00:16:32.830 --> 00:16:38.179 prays this to his father, he speaks to them and he says I Jesus, 179 00:16:38.220 --> 00:16:44.340 says I in them, meaning us, and you in me. That 180 00:16:44.539 --> 00:16:48.730 they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent 181 00:16:48.850 --> 00:16:56.289 me and loved them even as you loved me. In some way, we 182 00:16:56.409 --> 00:17:02.919 could describe Jesus's whole mission to the world as the announcement of the father's love 183 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:07.839 for the son. In some ways, that's what it's all about, God 184 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:15.559 expressing his love in himself, of God revealing his trying nature, and this, 185 00:17:15.829 --> 00:17:21.869 this try unity of love. That's Jesus's mission to the world, and 186 00:17:22.069 --> 00:17:29.230 he brings that mission about by saving US and drawing us into it, that 187 00:17:29.430 --> 00:17:37.740 we might love and abide in this love and him forever. Amazing. So 188 00:17:37.900 --> 00:17:40.740 when we think about the coming of Christ, we ought not to think of 189 00:17:40.900 --> 00:17:45.609 Jesus alone or Jesus by himself. We have to remember that he is the 190 00:17:45.690 --> 00:17:51.329 son of God, is the one who was sent and who willingly came all 191 00:17:51.529 --> 00:17:56.849 because of love, and so when we abide in him, we abide in 192 00:17:57.009 --> 00:18:07.000 love and we abide in God. These truths ought to make a huge difference 193 00:18:07.079 --> 00:18:14.029 in our lives. For one, you reminds us that, while our salvation 194 00:18:14.349 --> 00:18:18.869 is a rejection from God, are our salvation, or, I'm sorry, 195 00:18:19.190 --> 00:18:26.630 our our damn nation comes from our rejection of God. Our salvation comes from 196 00:18:26.910 --> 00:18:34.420 abiding in the love of God. What is sin? Sin is a refusal 197 00:18:34.660 --> 00:18:40.180 of of God, it's a refusal of his love, it's a refusal of 198 00:18:40.259 --> 00:18:42.890 his life, it's a rejection of him. No wonder it results in death 199 00:18:44.730 --> 00:18:51.609 when he himself is life. So what happens when Emmanuel, when God with 200 00:18:51.809 --> 00:18:56.240 us, comes into the world, when the light and the life of God 201 00:18:56.559 --> 00:19:02.759 comes and reveals himself to US and wraps us up in his arms, we 202 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:06.880 find salvation. And that's what Paul says. Coming back to Galatians, for 203 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:11.910 when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born 204 00:19:12.029 --> 00:19:15.269 of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under 205 00:19:15.269 --> 00:19:19.029 the law, so that we might receive as adoption, as sons. And 206 00:19:19.150 --> 00:19:22.789 because you are sons, God has spent the spirit of his son into our 207 00:19:22.869 --> 00:19:26.779 hearts, crying Abba father. So you no longer a slave but a son, 208 00:19:26.900 --> 00:19:33.339 and if a son, then an heir through God. Because the love 209 00:19:33.619 --> 00:19:37.420 God happens in this world not by random chance, but is grounded in God's 210 00:19:37.460 --> 00:19:47.609 own internal Trinitarian life. We gain definition about love, we gain certainty about 211 00:19:47.650 --> 00:19:52.490 love, even though there is much mystery there and infinite expansions of love. 212 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:59.400 There is also some definition there. Love is not just this feeling, although 213 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:03.359 it's partly that. Love is not just where our emotions happened to be leading. 214 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:10.230 Love is something that is grounded in the life of God himself. And 215 00:20:10.390 --> 00:20:15.150 so salvation unto love or and so our salvation, as we see in glacians, 216 00:20:15.230 --> 00:20:23.539 for results in this love, this family and adoption as sons by whom 217 00:20:23.539 --> 00:20:30.660 our carts cry out to our father, Abba father. Finally, I think 218 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:34.500 this also makes a big difference for us. In this way, as we 219 00:20:34.660 --> 00:20:38.369 receive this love of God in Christ, as we are wrapped up into this 220 00:20:38.569 --> 00:20:42.730 family, in the sending of the sun and the loving sending of the sun, 221 00:20:44.210 --> 00:20:48.450 we also gain a model for how God wants us to live our lives. 222 00:20:48.130 --> 00:20:53.119 We get direction and clarity about how we ought to live. The fuesians 223 00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:59.039 five, one through two, puts it this way. Therefore, be imitators 224 00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:06.509 of God as beloved children, the imitators of God as what kind of children, 225 00:21:07.470 --> 00:21:11.349 beloved children, and he goes on and he says and Walk in Love, 226 00:21:12.069 --> 00:21:19.700 as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, the love that 227 00:21:19.779 --> 00:21:22.779 we express to one another, the love that we have for one of the 228 00:21:22.859 --> 00:21:27.539 the giving of ourselves. What is it grounded in? It's grounded in our 229 00:21:27.619 --> 00:21:33.930 redemption. It's grounded in Christ giving himself up in the sending of the sun 230 00:21:34.849 --> 00:21:41.329 so that we might be adopted as beloved children in God. So if we 231 00:21:41.450 --> 00:21:44.890 want to understand how to live our lives, if we want direction on how 232 00:21:44.930 --> 00:21:47.960 we ought to act, on what we ought to do, we can look 233 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:51.440 to this. And if we want the power for those things as well, 234 00:21:51.480 --> 00:21:55.359 if we want assurance of that we can do those things and that God is 235 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:59.400 with us again, we can look to this Gospel and this good news to 236 00:21:59.480 --> 00:22:03.509 us in Christ. Let's pray our heavenly father. We thank you that you 237 00:22:03.589 --> 00:22:03.789 have s