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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for December 14, 2010
“Who Was Jesus’ Father?”
Hello, I’m
In John chapter eight, Jesus had a big showdown with the Pharisees.
Jesus used this phrase, “the Father who sent Me,” and they responded with this very direct question.
“Where is Your Father?”
That was a good question, but Jesus didn’t really answer it. Another great question for Jesus is, “Who is Your Father?”
In John 20:17 Jesus referred to His Father as His God.
Which god was he claiming as His father? In John 8:54 He told the Jews that their God was His Father. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God of the Old Testament was the Father of Jesus.
Before His death and resurrection, in John 16:28, Jesus said this, “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
Why did Jesus come into the world in the first place? Because the Father sent Him here. First John 4:14 says, “…the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”
The Father sent Jesus here to do certain works, the works which the Father had given Him to finish. (John 5:36).
When Jesus died, Galatians 1:1 says it was God the Father who raised Him from the dead.
Romans 15:6 sums it up nicely by calling God “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
First Corinthians 8:6 clarifies that there is “one God, the Father” and there is “one Lord, Jesus Christ.”
This may sound fundamental, but you know what? We must keep teaching the fundamentals.
Oh, and did Jesus ever say where His Father was? In Matthew 7:21 He said, “My Father who is in heaven.”
In fact, Jesus prayed to His Father in heaven. For example, before He was arrested in the
Now listen to this. In John 20:17 Jesus said, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God.”
Ephesians 1:17 calls our Heavenly Father “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Is this getting too deep for you yet? Jesus’ father is God the Father in heaven. Or did you think that the Son and the Father were exactly the same person? Hold on, let’s read some more.
Look what Jesus said in John 14:28. He said, “…My Father is greater than I.” In John 10:29 Jesus said, “My Father…is greater than all…”
Here is a verse you are probably familiar with. First John 2:1 says we have an advocate with the Father, “Jesus Christ the righteous.” That sounds like two separate entities, with one advocating to the other.
John 5:22 says that the Father has committed all judgment to the Son. This indicates that the two are not sharing duties identically.
In John 5:26, Jesus said that the Father has granted the Son to have life in Himself. That’s the Father, one authority, granting something to His Son, another authority.
The Father and the Son didn’t have exactly the same mind, at least not at the moment Jesus spoke in Mark 13:32. He said, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
So Jesus called God His God and His Father who is in heaven. Jesus was sent down from heaven by His Father, prayed to His Father, and was given works to finish by His Father. Jesus was raised from the dead by His Father, and returned to His Father.
If these were the only scriptures on the matter, you might conclude that Jesus is quite a separate being from God the Father.
Of course we’re in deep waters here, but let’s keep going; and now let’s look at the other side.
In John 14 Jesus told Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Then He said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?”
So does that mean looking at Jesus was identical to looking at the Father?
Apparently not, based on John 6:46, because there Jesus said that no one has seen the Father “except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father.”
So, Jesus said that only He had seen the Father, but that if they saw Jesus they had seen the Father.
Those sound like opposites, so what can they mean? Oh, and don’t forget John 10:30 where Jesus said, “I and My Father are one.”
Plus, Jesus said several times that He was going to His Father, as if He was a separate person in a separate place.
And yet in John 10:38 He said, “The Father is in me, and I in Him.”
Colossians 1:19 says that it pleased the Father to have all His fullness dwell in Jesus.
So that might get you leaning toward Jesus and the Father being identical. But then you run into a verse like First John 1:3 that says “our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
So is Jesus God? Well Titus 2:13 refers to Him as “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
In John 1, where Jesus is called “the Word,” it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Philippians 2 says that Christ Jesus, “…being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God…”
Am I saying that Jesus is God, and a separate god from God the Father?
The Bible teaches clearly throughout that there is only one God. Yet there also seems to be differences between the Father and the Son, such as Jesus saying He didn’t come to do His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him.
So here’s what I know. Jesus is the Son of God the Father, and is God Himself. The two are one.
“So Doug, what about the Holy Spirit?”
Ah…well I’m out of time, but I’m going to leave you with this biblical phrase that I think sums it up, and here it is.
The mystery of God.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m
© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
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