God

As we celebrate communion we truly celebrate the fact that God the Father sent His son to take our place of death and die upon the cross. In brief we celebrate the Love of the Father.

“God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!” So goes the saying. But tell people that God loves them and it may not strike relief at the core of a hardened heart. “After all,” they may answer, “what benefit is that to me that God should love me? I still have my bills, trouble with my kids, issues with my spouse, problems at work. What benefit to me is the Love of God?” More than that, they might look at all of their trouble and just say, “prove it.”

I say that God loves you” is an undeniable fact but it's not always evidenced the way people want to see it. Let's look at three ways God shows His love. He proved it at the cross, he proves it with discipline and he proves it in his constant care.

God Proved His Love at Cross

Well proving it really is the first step to answering that question. Before we can explain the benefit's of God's love we have to start with the proof of God's love; and fortunately that is a remarkably easy thing to do.

Romans 5:8 declares “ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ” ( Romans 5:8 , NASB95)

And again in 1 John we read, “ By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ” ( 1 John 4:9–10 , NASB95)

The Nature of God the Father I

(Begin by reading Psalm 139)

After the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed is perhaps the most well known (or at least the most well heard of) creed of the ancient church. In the year 325 AD the council of Nicea published what is effectively an expansion and clarification of the Apostles Creed. It was necessary because in large part one of the struggles the church was dealing with was the Arian heresy which denied that Jesus Christ was God. Therefore the Nicene creed was crafted in order to clarify the deity of Jesus Christ, as such that is where the bulk of the wording rests. On a side note, the Arian heresy has been resurrected in these days under the guise of the Jehovah's witnesses and the watchtower society. There is nothing new under the sun, and the same Biblical evidence which condemns Arianism, also condemns the Jehovah's witnesses as a cult – condemned to hell for rejecting what the Bible clearly says about Jesus.

One of the earliest confessions of faith to take root in the early church comes down to us as “the Apostles Creed.” Church historian Philip Schaff said, “As the Lord’s Prayer is the Prayer of prayers, the Decalogue is the Law of laws, so the Apostles’ Creed is the Creed of creeds. It contains all the fundamental articles of the Christian faith necessary to salvation, in the form of facts, in simple Scripture language, and in the most natural order—the order of revelation—from God and the creation down to the resurrection and life everlasting.” ¹

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth
And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell
The third day he rose again from the dead

He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead
I believe in the Holy Ghost
I believe a holy catholic [universal] church;
the communion of saints
The forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body
And the life everlasting.
Amen. ²

Like many of the church's ancient creedal statements the Apostles Creed starts at the very beginning with God the Father.

It is not uncommon to hear a message on the Deity of the Holy Spirit. For that we might start in Acts 5 where Peter confronts Ananias. In the same sentence he says to him first “You have lied to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 5:3) and then clarifies it saying, “You have lied to God” (Acts 5:4). From the mouth of Peter the Holy Spirit is clearly equated as God.

Neither is it unusual to hear lessons on the Deity of Jesus. For that we might start at John 1:1 where the “word” which is identified as Jesus and where it is plainly stated that “The word was God...”.

But I've never yet heard a message on the Deity of God our Father.

God reveals Himself in Scripture as God the Father

So this morning I would like to journey through the scripture to discuss that very doctrine; namely that the Father in the trinity is Himself fully God.