Some thoughts on “Our Father” in Luke’s Gospel.
March 2020
Blog 1: Our Father Introduced
We have paused in our service for the Lord at Lancaster Hall, and it feels strange. One thing doesn’t change though: whatever the future holds, we can take the opportunity in the meantime to find comfort in God’s Word. Please turn in your bible to the beginning of Luke Chapter 11. In verse 1, the disciples had just been watching and listening to the Lord Jesus praying to His Father. They were attracted by what they saw and heard, as well they might be: God the Son and God the Father were having a conversation! So they asked “Lord, teach us to pray”.
First, He told them to address God this way: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name”. They should remember who they were talking to, and they should reverence Him. Yet he was their father, the head of their family who gave them an authority, warmth, intimacy, care, and many other things that even the finest earthly father could not possibly attain.
Some of us have had good or even wonderful fathers in childhood, who we loved and respected. Others, (and especially some of the children who come to the Hall), have had absent, uncaring, or worse fathers. Some of the children will even have to be taught what a good father is like. Are you a father, or a father-figure in the assembly? A mother or mother-figure? Those children will see you being a Christian father/mother-figure; and if there is no-one in their life like that they will wish you were theirs. Look out for such children and see if you can thoughtfully carry out that role for them up to a certain level. It will need discretion, but the first requirement is to pray for such a child. Later in life they may well say: “you were a mum/dad to me”, or they may never realise that through your prayers that was exactly what you were.
To know God as our Father in heaven is a gift beyond price that the Lord gave to His disciples, and to all believers. Ponder the Lord’s words in John 17 as He prays a “High-priestly” prayer to the Father: His love for the disciples at such an hour is very moving, and if we ever doubted His personal love for us, here is the proof.
In reading the following few chapters from 12 onwards, it’s helpful to notice whether at a particular time the Lord is talking to: the Pharisees, the crowds, an individual questioner, or the disciples. What He says will depend on who he is talking to at the time. If to the disciples, he will return to the theme of The Father, building on their new-found close relationship with Him.
In Chapter 12, He teaches how the children can conquer fears and anxieties by knowing our Father’s conscious individual care for each of us – even providing for every possible detail of our needs.
On that firm foundation, He gives promises for the future: it is wonderful beyond imagination. Children of such a Father have an inheritance waiting for them, and it isn’t here in this poor old world!
Next, the Father gives His children opportunities for service. But He is so unlike any human master, as we shall discover.
After teaching the parables of the Kingdom, largely to the hostile Pharisees, in Chapter 15 the Lord returns to the much-loved theme of The Father. What enemy should not have his heart melted by the picture of a loving father welcoming his returning repentant son? But they had no need to repent! Every Christian instead can take this reassurance for themselves: there is nothing bad enough in my life to keep me from the arms of God my Father if I come back to Him for forgiveness!
I hope to begin to examine these themes in the next blog.
.