Our Father - Who is in Heaven

This wonderful Father of ours lives in Heaven, or literally ‘the Heavens’ – we tend to use the singular, but the Greek has the plural – those in Bible times would speak of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd heaven. Paul says he was caught up to the third heaven and saw amazing things which the language of this world would not do justice to!

Heaven is used in different ways: to refer to the atmosphere; to outer space – the realm of the stars and planets; and to the place where God dwells.

Earth is what is tangible to us, we can see it, touch it, work it, eat of it, run and play on it etc… but the heavens are not so, they are a spiritual  dimension, we can’t physically see them, but no less real.

In biblical understanding it’s another dimension, if you like an alternate dimension and as real as any physical dimension. The Bible tells the story of Elijah and his servant being surrounded by the armies of Assyria, and his servant fretting over it – and not without reason! So Elijah prays, “O LORD, open his eyes and let him see!” and it says, “The LORD opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.” (2 Kings 6:17). Wow! The armies of God were there! Relief!

There are many such stories in the Bible and down through church history, stories of another realm intercepting and impacting the earthly; of angels speaking to, guiding and protecting God’s people.

‘In the Heavens’ – we tend to think of Earth as being here and Heaven(s) as somewhere over there – usually a long way over there, far, far away… but this isn’t exactly how the Bible pictures it.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, where did he go? How did he go? It’s interesting that artists generally don’t know how to paint the ascension – yes he ascended and a cloud received him out of their sight, but did he just keep going up or did he ascend and move into another dimension? One things for sure he didn’t just keep going further into space, travelling across billion of miles of cosmos to get there, rather he ascended into the realm where God the Father is, he moved from one dimension to another, but with a physical body!

Jesus in teaching us to pray like this didn’t want us to understand that God was far away – that certainly wasn’t the experience of Jesus – actually as it says elsewhere “he is not far from any of us” (Acts 17:7) – speaking of all humanity. The materialists of today are the equivalent of those of a bygone era who held that the earth was flat, they want us to believe in a flat universe, a one-dimensional material universe that can be explored and explained, not so the Bible, which speaks of a multi-dimensional universe, consisting of the physical and the spiritual, the earth and the heavens, the seen and the unseen, the tangible and the intangible.

What does this mean for our praying? God isn’t far away! It means we don’t have to try and get across some vast gulf to get to him; we don’t have to shout just in case he can’t hear us over the distance, especially among the myriad of voices clamouring for his attention.

Though Jesus doesn’t want us to think of Father has far away, nevertheless, he does want us to think of him in a different way. The fact that he is in Heaven means that he is not like our earthly fathers, fallen and frail, subject to ups and downs, an image that is full of disappointment for many. No, he is the Father who is so much other than we are, he is the holy Father. The one who is perfect and complete in every way, whose love is not restricted by human frailty, and power not tainted by human fallenness.  Jesus says, “If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in the heavens give good things to those who ask him!”

But he’s also the Father who reigns, Heaven speaks of his throne – “Heaven is my throne” says the Lord in Isaiah 66:1. Yes he is sovereign, he has the power and the authority, all he needs to do is speak the word and it will be done. This gives us great encouragement in prayer, we are not praying then to one whose sphere of influence and ability to get something done is limited, we are praying to the very maker and sustainer of the heavens and the earth and all that is therein! Pray says Jesus is powerful!

“Our Father in the Heavens” So much in such a short phrase!

Our Father (3) We are Family

Jesus said when you pray say ‘Our Father…’

Thank God for the personal witness that he gives to each one of his children that we are indeed his children and entitled and enabled to say those amazing words ‘Abba, Father.’

Thank God too for personal prayer, that each one of us can come to God through Jesus Christ and through the Spirit personally pray, ‘Father…’

But there is more to it than that. Jesus taught us to pray ‘our Father.’ He’s not just my Father, he is your Father, he’s our Father. So in the prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples there is that calling to attention of one-another, of our brothers and sisters in Christ, of the Father’s family.

In a self-centred world then this prayer calls us to think about more than ourselves, to think also, and especially, about others. It’s not a you in your small corner and I in mine prayer. It’s not about a private faith but a shared one. It’s not about being in it on our own, but a shared life where we bear one another’s burdens, weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice.

To say ‘Our Father’ calls for the recognition and appreciation of our brothers and sisters in Christ. They have been given life by and share the same wonderful and glorious Father, they are part of the same family. They may be rich or poor, black or white, educated or uneducated, got a handle on life or struggling with it, introvert or extrovert, like pop (whatever that is these days) or classical music, etc.. Whoever they are, they are family, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Let me ask you, do you appreciate your church, your family, everyone of them in all their great variety? A bigger question still is, are you joined to one, do you know the fellowship of true commitment?

Someone once said that ‘no man is an island,’ too true, but many try to live as if they are, even Christians. The prayer that Jesus taught us reminds then that we are called to live a shared life, to be a family sharing communion together with Father.

The Lord's Prayer - Our Father

Jesus said when you pray say, “Father/our Father.” What a wonderful way to begin a prayer, from the beginning it speaks of one who gives us life and secondly cares for the life that he gives us. We are his children – wonderful! A relationship has been established, a relationship that can never be lost, however young or old, however weak or strong etc.. God is our Father, we are his forever children. There’s no need for striving here, we are not trying to become his children, we are, and he is our Father.

The problem is so much of our Christianity can be about performing up to God, earning his love, earning the right to pray and get our prayers answered. We end up concerned with saying it the right way, doing it the right way, saying it long enough, saying it loud enough, but in the model prayer that Jesus gave us there’s none of it – none. Jesus just says, “when you pray say, ‘Our Father…’”

That’s it. That phrase enables us to relate to God the Father just as Jesus the Son does. To be with him as he is, to talk to him as he does. It gathers us up and draws us into the very fellowship of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Prayer before anything else is about encounter and relationship with God the Father, and the Father with his children. It’s about being, rather than doing. And that’s part of our problem, we live in an action world, there’s stuff that needs to be done, and our praying can be more about doing, getting something done, albeit for the kingdom. We are more interested in the gifts than the Giver.

The Psalmist spoke about being still and knowing God. I wonder whether we might reinterpret that in a New Testament way and say, “Stop, be still, stop your activity – even all your prayerful activity – and know that God is Father.”

Why not find some time, and just pray, “Our Father..” No more, just be with him. Get to know him. Talk to him without request, delight in him and what it means to be Father/son or Father/daughter.

Our Father

We’ve just started a new series at church focussing on the Lord’s Prayer, and in turning afresh to it I’ve been impacted by the sheer simplicity and profoundness of it.

Many of us if not all (truth be known) struggle with, or have struggled with prayer – it sounds simple but how do you do it. I remember as a young Christian tying myself in knots over it. How should I address God? How should I structure/order my prayer? There’s ACTS: Adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. There’s silence, contemplation. Some said confession first, others said praise – you know how it goes, the list goes on…

But hey, following the disciples request, Jesus gave us a pattern, a model, and one thing that strikes you about it is the lack of religious phrasing and it’s sheer simplicity, I mean it’s so natural, so relational. In fact the Jews of the day would have been stunned to hear Jesus say, “when you pray say, ‘Our Father’”. Yes they had a general concept of God’s fatherhood, but they certainly didn’t relate to or speak to him in this way.

The disciples had observed Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, and they had been staggered by the way he prayed, the way he related to God. I mean it was so... intimate, so... real, so... meaningful, so... personal, and they wanted to know how to have the same relationship.

Some desire, but Jesus doesn’t hinder them, he leads them right in!

When you pray, say, “Our Father…”

New Beginnings

New years like new days provide new beginnings, new opportunities.

Some would have us believe that we are caught up in an unending repetitious cycle of events, but that is not the way the Bible has it.

Yes there are seasons that come round year by year, that’s good, there is order to life.

But there is also movement, advancement.

The story of the Bible is just that – that the God who created has a purpose in it all. He made us for himself, to enjoy him and serve his unfolding purposes. His desire has always been to bless and make us a blessing. The enemies (Satan) is one of cutting us off from God, of curse and cursing, of being locked into a fallen, downward hopeless cycle of life.

Praise God that’s where the Christmas story comes in (though it begins way before that!). God came in Jesus to break the curse, the endless cycle of fallenness and hopelessness – Jesus came to destroy all the power of the evil one and in doing so to bring the reign of God and therefore his Fatherhood, blessing and purpose back into our experience.

It’s a lie of the enemy that ‘whatever will be, will be.’  God can and does breaks in! Jesus saves and delivers, and gives power to live a new kind of life. And if you know him and have messed up (as we all do) the Father’s still loving you, you are still his child, and like any good father he wants to clean you up and set you on your feet again.

With God everyday is a new beginning, his mercies are new every morning and his lovingkindness makes everyday worth living, and with him advancement is on the agenda!

God Invades Humanity

The Christmas story is staggering in all respects, a virgin, angels, a star... but the most staggering aspect must be that God invades the realm which he had created and takes on the dirt of the earth that he had taken and fashioned and given his own breath to - flesh! God himself becomes a human; yes, real flesh and blood, without ever stopping being God.

That is the staggering nature of the Gospel, the Good News - God has come, he has invaded 'our space'!

We were on the run, we were hiding, and God came to find us and put things right.

He couldn't do it from 'out there', he had to come here.

He couldn't send someone else, he had to come himself.

• Our salvation necessitated it.
• Our restoration required it.
• Creation's renewal demanded it.

He had to be both God and man, not one or the other. He must represent, and be both sides.

He alone could bridge the gap, the distance brought about by the Fall.

He alone could save and heal. As the early church Father Gregory said "the unassumed is the unredeemed." God must assume the very likeness of our broken sinful flesh in order to redeem and heal it.

How? By the Holy Spirit - that's all the Bible tells us; or in the words of the hymn writer - "God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man" (Charles Wesley). Mystery. But that doesn't mean it's not true.

The first few verses of Wesley's Hark the Herald Angels Sing express it well:

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Then there are two verses that rarely ever get sung, and they are gospel loaded, a prayer applying the truth of the incarnation to one and all who will believe:

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.

Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King!

Loaded verses indeed! Full of Gospel truth.  He has invaded 'our space,' taken it on, healed, redeemed and reconciled it in order to reinstate us in his love.

We were made by God for God, and God's invasion of 'our space' is a declaration that God is for us.

What if Jesus hadn't come?

I found myself wondering the other day what would the world be like if Jesus had never been born, and the more I thought about it the more I began to realise it would be a vastly different place to what we know now and certainly not a better one.

Unfortunately the liberal West loves to blame Christianity for many of the world's ills and keep people ignorant of the positive and profound impact Jesus, and consequently, those who have believed in, and followed him, have had upon the world.

Let me list a few...

The coming of Jesus has transformed lives, relationships and communities.

It has brought liberty and justice, education, medicine and health care to the masses.

It has brought deliverance from false and futile religion and dark satanic practices.

It has provided relief to the poor, lifted the downtrodden and broken the yoke of the oppressed.

It has impacted politics and law and given dignity and rights, freedom of speech.

It has been a stimulator and contributor to the whole arena of science.

It has given dignity to work and the rights of employees.

It has contributed enormously to music, literature and the arts.

It has provided the biggest season of goodwill the world has ever known.

And so we could go on....

Which reminds me, not so long ago I read a report that had come out of atheistic China that said that all that is good (note that) about the West derives from Christianity and therefore from Jesus. That is some statement!

Yes, if Jesus had not come into the world it would have been a far worse and poorer place.

Praise God, Jesus did come!