Going Deeper with God part 1: God as Father and Shepherd

Our community group just started a unit on "Going Deeper with God", looking at the different roles God takes throughout the Bible. I led last night's study, which was the first, looking at how God relates to us as Father and child. Here are the notes, for anyone who's interested. I'll get back into writing some more personal stuff later; things are picking up at both work and ministry-wise.

Overall Introduction

In this unit, we will be focusing on how we can go deeper in our relationships with God. We will look at the different roles of God as described in Scripture, and see how these human analogies can be applied in a perfect way to God. The questions we want to then ask are: knowing what we know about God, how does this change the way we: 1) intercede in prayer, 2) listen in prayer, 3) read Scripture, 4) worship corporately, 5) worship independently, 6) witness, 7) work?

Introduction to this Lesson

What do you think characterizes the ideal father-child relationship? Do you have any examples from your own experience of this?

A shepherd is someone who herds, tends, and guards sheep. What do you think characterizes the ideal shepherd?

God as Father

God is the Father of all in the sense of being Creator of all humanity.

God is the Father in his essential attitude toward all mankind, for he loves and has compassion for everyone.

God is the Father of Jesus for in nature they are equal and one

God is the Father of those who, through faith in Christ, have become members of God’s own family.

We are, or have been…

A Rebel: The prodigal son and the waiting father

In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), the son rebels under his father’s headship because he wants the freedom of choosing what he wants to do, without realizing that it is under his father’s house that he has the greatest freedom (being taught responsibility, has partial/eventual ownership of house and property, only obligated to father).

After the son squanders all, hard times come, and he’s working for a man who has no interest in him as a person, he “comes to his senses” (15:17). “When he takes stock of his life he discovers that his is chained to his urges. His passions have so developed within him that he has to satisfy them in any way he can. Yet even when he does so, they are not satisfied (Stedman).” He realizes he has no freedom, his father-given possessions are gone, all he wanted was in his father’s house, and he realized he had lost his sonship (so he would try to go back as a servant). He’s not happy about experimenting with sin/evil and has no justification whatsoever.

The father’s response is to bring the robe (sign of sonship), a ring (sign of authority), and a feast (sign of honor). Why? “It is a picture of the heart of God. The father's agony began when he first realized that he had to let this boy go. He did not want to. He knew what lay ahead, and he knew it was needless. He knew that he could have spared this boy the heartache, the loneliness, the shame and degradation of the far country; that he could have saved him from these black marks upon his soul. Had the boy been patient, and waited a bit, and allowed his father to work out his purposes, he could have brought him into the full enjoyment of the liberty he sought, but without the heartache, without the shame. Yet the father knew he could not do it without the boy's full cooperation, that, when he had reached this stage of development, the boy must cooperate with him in it. He had to wait, and agree to wait, through the fulfillment of the father's plans. But if he would not wait the father could not force him; he could not make him do it. So there came a time when, with his heart breaking, the father gave the boy the money and let him go (Stedman).”

A Child: Adoption and being “born again”

Adopted – we are not naturally part of God’s family, we are naturally part of Adam’s sinful lineage. God legally makes us His sons (adoption) through Jesus’ sacrifice.

Born again – once we are adopted, “We have been made partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4) Brought from “death to life” (Luke 15:24)

“abba” – Aramaic for “dear father”, first syllables a baby can utter

God doesn’t just love us – he likes us as well and takes delight when we delight (Matthew 19:13-14 – childlike, not childish)

Subsection: God as Shepherd

Excerpt from The Revell Bible Dictionary:

Sheep were a valued economic resource in Israel, known and named individually by the shepherds responsible for their care. To be called one of God’s sheep was to be affirmed as someone truly important to God. Yet sheep are a relatively helpless animal, vulnerable to wild animals and prone to go astray. To call God “my shepherd” casts the Lord as a person who accepts responsibility to care for and protect the believer – one whom the believer can trust as fully as sheep could trust the shepherd who owned and cared for them.

As the Good Shepherd, Jesus “lays down his life for the sheep (Jn 10:11)” Mere hired hands to whom the sheep have no personal value abandon them when the wolf comes. Because Jesus cares for his sheep, and has a personal relationship with each of them, he will lay down his life for the sheep. As a good shepherd Jesus interposed himself between his sheep and deadly danger, and willingly died that the sheep he valued might “have life and have it to the full.”

An Heir: Growing from children to heirs

Romans 8:14-18: “… Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

If we are a son of God, then we are led by the Spirit of God and living in his fullness – entering into full possession of our inheritance rather than having it held for us until we reach our age of majority.

“This picture that he draws comes from the Roman custom of adopting their children. A Roman father, if he had male children, never referred to them as his sons until they were of age. They were his children, but they were not his sons. But, when they became of age (which was about 14 in the Roman system) he took them down to the public forum, and, there, they were publicly adopted by their own father and thereafter regarded as his heirs. They entered into participation in their father's business, and had a share in his inheritance… The true son is one who himself is nothing, but who lives in continual dependence upon an indwelling one within who does everything -- both of them distinct beings, both of them thinking, and feeling, and willing, and acting -- yet one is nothing and the other is all. Any other life than this is living death. (Stedman)”

How do we grow in maturity? By “sharing in Christ’s sufferings so that we may also share in his glory.” Note that this is not suffering due to our own sin, but rather in seeking after God’s purposes and working for his Kingdom.

Application

God, as a Father and Shepherd: loves you, protects you, provides for your needs (Matt 6:25-34), provides good gifts (Matt 7:9-12), plans for you, hears you, claims you and openly acknowledges you as a child, chastens and corrects you to help you grow into maturity, and honors you.

Knowing this…

1) Do you typically address God as “Father” when you pray? Why?

2) In your relationship with God the Father, are you in a state of rebellion, of being a child, or becoming an heir?

3) Do you believe God loves you? Do you believe God likes you (i.e. likes spending time with you, listening to you talk, teaching you, being involved in your successes and failures, etc.)? Are you childlike or childish?

4) Are you maturing in Christ by accomplishing the goals your Father has for you? Do you have to suffer to do this?

This week…

Ask God to sanctify your imagination. Detach yourself for a period of time from outside distractions, like work and other concerns, and address God as “Father.”

- If you are in a state of rebellion, renounce the things that caused you to run away from God. In your mind, picture yourself being welcomed joyfully by God, who reclaims you as a child and as an heir. Thank God for saving you from the sin that caused you to turn away in the first place.

- Address God as a child. Be less formal (“Abba”, “Daddy”). Share with God the things that delighted and frustrated you today. Ask God to share with you the things that delight and frustrate Him, and then sit still and consider the images He places in your mind. Write these down, and consider them as you read Scripture.

- Come to God as an heir. Ask God to bring to mind what needs to be done in His business in your contexts at work, church, with family and friends. As you read Scripture, consider what God has equipped/is equipping you to do in His Kingdom. Seek to transform and apply your passions to His work.

References

http://pbc.org/library/files/html/3520.html

http://pbc.org/library/files/html/0376.html

http://pbc.org/library/files/html/0018.html

The Revell Bible Dictionary