Worship to the Father

     Last week we started to consider the question, “Who is it that we worship?” We saw that the one true God is starkly different than the false gods of the land because he is patient, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. So now we turn our attention to the particulars of who this true God is, and boy do I have my work cut out for me. In fact, today, I am going to dispense with all of the usual trappings of a sermon so that we can get down to brass tacks, because today I want to jump off into the deepest well of Scripture. To understand this one true God, you have to understand that God reveals himself in the Trinity. So, I want to start today by making a few points about the doctrine of the Trinity, and then I want to look deeper at the first person of the Trinity, God the Father. Let’s start by reading our passage from Ephesians 3:14-21 together.

You may notice as we walk through this series on worship that I reference the book of Ephesians a great deal. The reason for that is because this little book is chock full of songs of praise that Paul offers to God. We find just such an example in our passage. Paul takes a break from his teaching to offer a prayer for the Ephesian church, and what flows out of that prayer is another picture of the ways in which God is involved in our salvation. You may have noticed as we read the passage that Paul involves each person of the Trinity in this prayer. In verse 14, he praises the Father. In verse 16, he prays that the power of the Spirit would be on the church. In verse 17 he prays that the presence of Christ would strengthen their faith. Because each person of the Trinity is addressed in this prayer, I want to use this passage as the launching point for the next three weeks, as we take a look at each person of the Trinity.

But, before we can look at each person of the Trinity, we need to first understand what the Trinity is. This passage helps us with that. You will notice as you read this passage that there is a great deal of interchange between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We see Paul praying in verse 16 that the Holy Spirit would indwell the “inner being” of each believer. But, then in verse 17 we see that he prays that Christ would be present in the heart of each believer. How is it that the Holy Spirit is present, and Christ is present in each believer? Then, we see this doxology of praise in verses 20-21, where Paul praises God the Father, who is able to do far more than we can ask, because of the power working in us. What power is he referring to? The power of the Holy Spirit that he referenced back in verse 16.

So, we see in just this short prayer that what Paul has in mind is a unity and a diversity of God. He mentions three different persons, but he also unites them as all of the same power and all of the same source. This truth about God is implied in the Old Testament in the ways that God interacts with his world. At the very beginning, in the first four verses of Genesis, we find all three persons of the Trinity as God the Father decrees, God the Spirit hovers over the waters, and God the Son works as the Word of God bringing the world to be. We find it in this mysterious figure known as the Angel of the Lord, who appears at important turns in the story of God’s work in Israel. In Exodus 3 we find this Angel of the Lord appearing to Moses in the form of a burning bush, and when the angel speaks, he doesn’t say, “Thus says the Lord”. No, he speaks as the Lord himself, and the ground before him is considered holy. We find it in another mysterious figure called the Son of Man. In Daniel 7:13, Daniel has a vision of a son of man who comes in the clouds of heaven. He comes with the full authority of God himself. All of these and more Old Testament references point to the idea that God reveals himself as three persons in one being. But, when we get to the New Testament, this truth becomes explicit. While you can find this idea throughout the New Testament, it is in the Gospel of John that we find the clearest teaching on the Trinity. John starts his Gospel with a clear statement of the unity of God the Father and God the Son by saying in chapter 1, verse 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Later on, in chapter 14, verse 8, Jesus tells Phillip, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Then, he promises down in verse 16 that he will send the Helper, who is the Holy Spirit, and through this Helper Jesus promises that he will never leave his disciples.

The summation of the Bible’s teaching on the Trinity is this: The one true God is one in being and three in person. Now, over the centuries of the Christian church, there have been many people who have set out to fully comprehend and explain the Trinity. This has led most who set out on this task into great error and even heresy. Those heresies actually help us to understand what we don’t mean when we talk about the Trinity, and they break down into three major categories. The first major heresy came in the form of Arianism. Arius had a saying, “there was a time when he was not.” He figured that there was no way that God could be one and yet reveal himself in three persons, so he declared that Jesus must have been the first created being, possibly even the archangel, Michael. The church answered Arius at the Council of Nicaea by saying that Jesus is “very God of very God.” In other words, Jesus is as much God as the Father is. Arianism has actually never gone away. You can find it even here in America in the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The second major heresy is Modalism, which teaches that, when we find references to the Son or the Spirit, these are really just God the Father changing forms or modes. Really, there is only one personality in God, and he is revealing himself in different ways by changing forms to suit the situation. The church answered this heresy by saying that God is three in personality but one in essence. Each person of the Trinity exists as a separate personality, but of the same essence as God. Modalists are still around today, as well. You find them in a group of Pentecostals known as the “Oneness Pentecostals.”

The third major heresy is “Tritheism”, which holds that each person of the Trinity is actually a separate god, and they all three work together as a community that makes up one Godhead. To this, the church answered again that God is one in being.

Now, if your head isn’t spinning by now, then it is probably because you’ve fallen asleep. But, I wanted to detail all of these heresies so that you might see that it is a fool’s errand to try to wrap your mind fully around the idea of the Trinity. This doctrine is what we call a mystery of the faith. And, when we come upon a mystery, our right response is not to sit down and try to figure it out. In a way, trying to figure it out is kind of like trying to get a leg up on God, and maybe even to become God. Our right response, rather, is to marvel, and to worship.

Along with that warning, let me add that it is dangerous to try to come up with some analogy that might help us understand the Trinity. I’ve heard plenty of them, and I’ve even used them, whether it be the analogy of water, ice and vapor, or the analogy of father, son and brother. There are two problems with these analogies. First, they ultimately fall short of explaining things, and they can easily fall into one of the three heresies that I just explained. But, we also don’t need them. God has already given us analogies for understanding the Trinity. In fact, the best way to understand the Trinity is to understand the roles that each person in the Trinity carries out. In Scripture, we find God the Father acting as Creator and Father. We find the Son acting as Word and Image. And we find the Spirit acting as the Empowering Life of God. Or, if you want to think about it terms of how we worship, our worship is offered to the Father, through the Son, and in the power of the Spirit.

So, with the little bit of time we have left, let’s consider the role of God the Father. We see this role in the passage we read from Ephesians 3. In verse 14-15, Paul praises God the Father, “from whom every family on earth is named.” This phrase is jam packed with meaning. First, it means that God the Father has created every family on earth. We know that already, because we know that Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But, it’s important to understand that the idea of the Creator God goes beyond just the mechanics of making a world and everything in it. It also deals with God’s purpose and his decree. Isaiah 46:9-10 says, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” Everything that exists and everything that unfolds in the story of this world is because of God’s purpose.

Second, the statement Paul makes about God the Father drives at the concept of God’s fatherliness. God is the ultimate and ideal Father. Think about the way he interacts with his creation. When Adam and Eve sinned, there were curses, but God also made the first sacrifice and used the hide to cover their shame. When Cain killed his brother, there was judgment, but he also marked Cain so that no one would kill him. When the world became full of violence, he judged it with a flood, but he also saved a remnant in Noah’s family. He gathered the nation of Israel together and made them his special possession. He rescued them from slavery in Egypt, gave them a special covenant, and even saved a remnant after judging them through the terrible destruction of Babylon.

And, the clearest evidence of God’s fatherly love is found in the gift of his Son. Remember that great verse that we all know from John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” How could you not delight in such a marvelous God?! He has made you. Psalm 139:13 says that he knit you together in your mother’s womb. Not only that, but he purposed your life for his glory. All the ups and downs, the love, the joy, all of it was purposed by a loving Father. And, he has given his Son so that you might be saved through faith in him.

Friend, this good Father loves you. He has purposed your life and given his Son that you might be saved. Won’t you come to him in repentance and faith today?

Brothers and sisters, it is this loving Father who calls us to delight in him. He does not call us as an austere, unapproachable Master who demands everything and gives nothing. No! He calls us as a loving Father calls his children to come and rest upon his lap. This is the God we worship. This is the God we serve out in the world. May the love of this Father motivate us to glad and grateful lives of worship.