The Father: An Overview

Published
Scripture

 Today's reading is the whole of Jesus' prayer in John 17. Since the Father is mentioned throughout the prayer we're not going to focus on one specific verse but instead provide a birds eye overview of some of the themes Jesus draws out. Take some time now to read the chapter, making some observations of your own and then come back and go through it with me.

Observation

 Verse 1 - Knowing the Father is eternal life.  This is something that is so exciting it demands a whole extra blog. You can read that blog here if you want to.

Verse 5 - The Father and the Son were together in glory (majesty and splendour) before the world began.

Verse 6 - The Father gave the Son his disciples. He gave the Son those people who are right now believing in him and following him. It can therefore be said that the disciples or believers belonged to the Father since you can't give something you don't have.

Verse 8 - The Father sent the Son. Jesus wasn't acting just out of his own good idea.

Verse 9 - Jesus saw himself as a steward of the things and people that the Father had given to him.

Verse 10 - The Father shares everything with the Son.

Verse 11 - The Father is holy. Holy means pure, untouchable, unapproachable and reserved entirely for God. We also see here that the Father and the Son are one.

Verse 17 - The Father is able to sanctify, that is he is able to make holy. The Father's word is truth.

Verse 21 - The Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father.

Verse 24 - The Father has given the Son glory. The Father loved the Son before the world began.

Finally we can observe from verse 25 that the Father is righteous and that the Father is unknown by the world. The world does not know him. For all its ideas about God they fall a long way short of truthfully speaking about the Father and for all its knowledge about God they do not know the Father.

To conclude this devotional series on the Father let's put in front of us all of the descriptions of the Father from the titles of our daily entries:


  • The Forgotten Father
  • The Father of Grace & Truth
  • The Father's Side
  • The Father Hasn't Walked Out On Us
  • The Father and the Son
  • The Father At Work
  • The One the Son is Tethered To
  • The Father Who Raises the Dead
  • The Father Who Honours the Son
  • The Father Who Provides Bread From Heaven
  • The Father Who Gives Eternal Life
  • The Father Who Draws People to the Son
  • The Alive and Life Giving Father
  • The Father Who Seeks His Son's Glory
  • The Father Who Glorifies the Son
  • The Father Who Knows Me
  • The Reason the Father Loves the Son
  • The Father Who Won't Let Go
  • The Father Who Hears the Son
  • The Father Who Honours Us
  • The Father to Trust Unto Death
  • The Slave God
  • The Father, Son & Spirit
  • The Father Death Leads U To
  • The Father is Greater than the Son
  • The Gardening Father
  • The Father to Be Known
We haven't 'made up' any of these. These are all insights from the mouth of Jesus. I trust Jesus. Jesus died on Good Friday and was raised to life on Easter Sunday and is in charge of all things. Jesus can be trusted to speak truthfully about God. He is my primary basis for speaking about the Father. He is my authority for saying anything at all about God. 

Let me finish by quoting again from Doug Wilson's masterful book 'Father Hunger' where he lists the attributes of God's generosity seen in John's gospel:
The most obvious feature of the Father is his generosity. He is generous with his glory (1:14), with tasks (5:18), with his protection (10:28-32), with his home (14:1-2), and with his joy (16:23-24). The Father gives (3:34-36). The Father gives his Son (3:16; 18:11); the Father gives his Spirit (14:16-17); the Father gives himself (14:22-24).
He then goes on to say that God is seeking worshippers who will become like he is, and what is he:
He is generous with everything. Is there anything he has that he has held back? And what should we- tangible fathers- be like? The question is terribly hard to answer, but not because it is difficult to understand.
I hope that these devotional studies have been of benefit to you. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Jez


 P.S. For more devotional studies on the Father you're welcome to visit my own blog site www.jezfield.blogspot.co.uk or come back tomorrow for a final (bonus edition) post.